I've been trying several new things to try to lose weight lately. I already exercise most days of the week in some form or another. I already eat a healthy diet most of the time. Yet... I am not slender.  The struggle is annoying and weird and I'm trying new methods to attack it. I'm doing mindfulness (yes, I'm one of the people making Andy ( Read more... )

This is a gratitude post. Or possibly a meta discussion of gratitude. I'm not sure yet, because I haven't written it yet ( Read more... )

I am 51 years old. My husband is 60. It is beyond bizarre that my grandmother was still alive, and in many respects she was not, although her cells still respirated.  It's been a bit of a battle amongst my uncles and aunts: some thought that every breath was sacred and she should be kept alive by any measure, while others thought a nice four-day ( Read more... )

My husband's sister died of cystic fibrosis when he was twenty (and she was 23, the age our son is now.) I only know her through the shape of the hole she left. Her art hanging on our walls. Her picture in family photos. My husband's attitude towards therapy, which he associates with that time. My mother-in-law's hesitation when, forty years after ( Read more... )

I've been dabbling a bit in geneology, mostly just because I was going to a family reunion where a 100 year old great aunt would be and it felt like I'd better not wait to ask her about her parents.  Truth be told, this all came about because I got high one night a few months ago (this is a rare occurance for me) and I started having conversations ( Read more... )

I'm thinking about AdmNaismith asserting over on Facebook that anyone with an (R) after his name is evil/crazy/stupid and truly thinking he's onto something.  His theory is that 50% of the people he knows - who seem perfectly lucid - are secretly evil/crazy/stupid.  And that theory makes more sense to him than the possibility that other people know things he ( Read more... )

I can't find this recipe written anywhere, so I'm going to stick it here.  It's our Halloween favorite, although really any crockpot concoction would work.   I love the meals that are shelf-stable instant meals and this is one of them, although on infrequent rotation since we went localvore ( Read more... )

I just finished reading "Why I am a Reagan Conservative", an anthology edited by Michael K. Deaver.  It made me realize how little I know about the conservative movement.  It also made me realize how very much I am not what they refer to as a "conservative", and how deeply I miss the Republican party as it existed during Reagan's years: reaching ( Read more... )

( Some kids stay... )

My mother had been 18 for a week when I was born. My maternal grandmother had a big impact on the raising of me, especially since my father was only peripheral after I turned seven. So when I talk about religion you've got to go straight to my maternal grandmother because she's where I get it all.

Grandma Florence was born to immigrant Jews at the ( Read more... )