As I write this, it is the first day of Spring. From the white board in front of our makeshift homeschool classroom, I can erase the word “Winter” from the combination “Winter/Spring”. We live in a form of winter/spring for a handful of months in the Central Valley. The weather
The Covid-shutdown shuffled around our income. In the transition, we find my husband now working most holiday mornings. It was not a change I would have lobbied for. You see, I am an extrovert, and as an extrovert, I crave conversation, discussion, a rational witness to the work I am
Now that that’s over The election is finally nearing an end (as of this writing) and I can hear the celebrations and sighs of relief on one side and the cries of injustice, stolen elections, fear and trembling for the future on the other. I could write that same sentence
Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day There is something about raising children that broadens and sharpens my focus on celebration and tradition. It may be their exuberance. It may be their curiosity. Whatever it is, I can safely say my understanding and appreciation of Thanksgiving has grown. For most of
There are things we will miss One day I will miss the shoes on the floor, the tiny pair, a miniature version of his father’s shoes. There are piles of clothes around the house as I attempt the annual sorting of four outgrown children’s clothes, discerning what to donate, what
The world reopened but then it shut down again. The smoke cleared but then came another hazy day. The heat dissipated but then came another high-temperature, red flag warning wave. Are you in the camp who continues to think, “It will pass. It will pass”? When it passes, do you
What a long week it was. It was alarming but not life-altering for my family when the shutdown began in March. When the smoke billowed into the San Joaquin/Central Valley, that changed our lives for the time being. We had just bunked the four older children in one room to
I am not a medical expert, but I am a medical mom. As a medical mom, I learned one thing again and again – to adapt. Whether I stayed bedside with my son for a weekend or a month, I took the same size suitcase and the same toiletry bags.
When I was a teenager, I wanted to save the world. I wanted to fly to Indonesia to give aid after the tsunami. In my twenties, it was all about laying the path to professionally make a difference. In my thirties, it is now that I realize the world is
