Monthly Archives: December 2011
Things That Are True About Florida (as reported by the Barnhill kids)
“In Florida,” Ella announced, “all alligators become human at night. Or mostly human. Everyone knows this. Their skin is too bumpy and they have too many teeth and they don’t like it at all. They’re in a terrible temper. All … Continue reading
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Holiday madness continues.
Right now, I am here: visiting my beloved mother-in-law and father-in-law and grandmother-in-law and…. whatever Uncle Charles is. The cousin, though practically a brother, to my father-in-law, who has no actual nieces or nephews of his own because he has … Continue reading
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Post-Christmas
There is a girl upstairs, with new knitting needles, twisting yarn into a hat. There is a boy in the next room, peering at pages of pictoral instructions, assembling Legos into a ship. There is another girl at the table … Continue reading
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Things unmade, unbought, undone
Sometimes, I feel like this lady: Bah. Who am I kidding? I feel like her every day. There are six rounds of cookie dough in the freezer that I have not baked. There are rooms in my house that I … Continue reading
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Jedi Mom
It’s not very cold in Minnesota today. At least not for December. December in Minnesota. The world is windy and damp and the air smells like earth. And at 34 degrees, I figured why tear my house apart looking for … Continue reading
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Wine, Women, and Song
I was a singer when I was young. I sang in a girls’ choir that traveled the world – we sang in China and Japan, Scandinavia and Canada and around the United States. The choir even went to the South … Continue reading
Rudolph the Farting Reindeer
This morning, the power went out to about 4,000 homes in Minneapolis – mine included. And it was a lovely morning – gray and damp, with the yellow glow of candles and a fire in the hearth. It was beautiful. … Continue reading
LEGO CAKES!
I made them myself. And they are horrible! NO JUDGIES! Still, as my husband worked his poor little soul to teeny tiny pieces in his efforts to coordinate and coach the Lego Robotics team (with, I have to say, very … Continue reading
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Tagged Betty Crocker, I Stink At Baking, Julia Child, Lego Robotics, nova classical academy
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The Beautiful and the Strange
I may not be posting much this week. We’ll see. I’ve encountered a bit of a dark place in my work. Not dark insomuch as the subject matter is concerned (though, truth be told, I am prone to darkness) (Wasn’t … Continue reading
Sometimes I dream coyote dreams
I heard the coyote again last night. I am still hearing it in the ears of my mind. It is a cold, lonely sound. It is made of hard, crusted snow. I live on a dead-end street; it teems with … Continue reading
The sky poured in my head and the world rang blue
“I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.” Hamlet The world I see is not the world I know. The world I see is dead. It … Continue reading
On Birthdays: mine, specifically
Confession: I tell lies sometimes. For example: I have, for the past six years, been telling people that I am forty. I am not. I haven’t been this whole time. But when I turned thirty-two, six years ago, (oooo! math!) … Continue reading
A Mighty Fortress Is My Butt….
This morning Leo decided to sing some songs. Cordelia was not amused. “Jingle butts, jingle butts,” he sang as I handed him his hot cider. “Snow got on….my butt!” “MOM!” Cordelia said. “Make him stop singing.” I hadn’t had any … Continue reading
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Tagged a mighty fortress is our god, adventures in parenting, raising boys, Raising girls
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The Side-Effects of Catholic School
As many of you know, I went to Catholic School as a child. Here is me, in my plaid uniform, gazing at the viewer as though looking INTO YOUR SOUL. Given the sheer amount of time I spent … Continue reading
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Tagged Catholic school, French Philosophers, Slavic Dances, Stephen Colbert, The King of Glory
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