Adam is on a really really good soccer team this season. I was talking to a dad during it who has an eighth-grader on the team. He said that his son has been on a number of travel teams and is enjoying this team more than any of those because the players are really good but also better at being a team and are more supportive of each other. The boys ( Read more... )

I have been working on planning things and on tearing apart every room in my house in an attempt to get it into better shape (but then getting distracted before it is,) so I haven't done any more reading on back pain. I'm still going to continue the blogging habit, though, on a topic that is perhaps even more important in our daily lives: the ( Read more... )

I think I failed to write about G's kindness club this year. According to her, there was a girl in her grade (but not in her class) that was being "mean" to other girls (not to G in particular.) This, G and her friend decided, was unacceptable. So they formed a kindness club and thought of ways to make people feel good, including this girl. Every ( Read more... )

I can't sleep. It doesn't happen all that often, which is surprising given that all of the things keeping me awake are usually true. My hips hurt. I have nothing lovely to think about. I realized that in addition to losing my ability to run and enjoy my body in that manner, my body has also ceased to be touched by others. Where it used to be ( Read more... )

The other day Husband I were reminiscing about those days when Son was a toddler and preschooler and we were pretty sure he was already secretly enrolled in law school. We were reminiscing because Son's ridiculous argument about what was and was not considered a sidewalk was particularly weak and empty of convincing evidence. His eight year old ( Read more... )

Oh my. My children are not having their best student days today. For some reason, Adam sent the following to me and to his Language Arts teacher ( Read more... )

Our church is hosting a series of inter-faith conversations as the Sunday morning sermon. Today was Judaism. Jesus was Jewish, of course. While he was describing the main things an observant Jew would do--#1 being observing Shabbat, I felt jealous. I wish I could do that. He then affirmed that it's much easier to do in Israel, when it's a ( Read more... )

Uncharacteristic of Chicago weather in the last six months, we had a warmer-than-usual Easter. Maybe this is because Easter is a day to celebrate the impossible. To celebrate, we had our (non-religious) egg hunt outside for the first time. The bunny filled the eggs with marbles, which is so much better than jelly beans. The kids were excited. ( Read more... )

The really nice thing about not having a full time teaching job yet is that when I hit 9pm and sore eyes and have been teaching or grading or cooking or driving to dance lessons since 6:30am, I can decide that I am done for the night. Yes, I still have outlines to grade ASAP and students to email tomorrow and papers to grade by Friday and two ( Read more... )

I think I might have had one of my best Valentine's Days this year. The kids had been planning a "party" for some time and were worried because they hadn't made enough goodie bags for my in-laws, so we couldn't have it after school. So they set their alarm clocks early and we had a breakfast party. Adam had made me two cards, addressed to "Mom" ( Read more... )