One of my biggest sadnesses in living in an apartment was not having space for garden beds (or not wanting to have to take out beds before moving out). I was happy to have a house with a yard when The Climbing Daddy and I bought this one! We’re in our second spring of gardening, … Read more
We put in some fruit trees about a month ago. They were mostly bare at the time but are starting to flower, grow leaves, grow branches. The growth is wonderful! So much joy in the greens and pinks! So much hope for fresh fruit straight from the back yard! (So many exclamation points!) It seems … Read more
I have no role model in my family to show me what life looks like as an aging healthy person. I don’t know what life expectancy is. I know one of my great-grandmothers lived to somewhere around 100 (she edited her birth certificate when she immigrated here so she could get work, so we’re not … Read more
That’s what I wrote on Facebook eight years ago. I had traveled to NJ to present at a conference. (I love doing that!! Public speaking is fun scary.) I had spent several sessions with Michael, my therapist, working on a scripted conversation with my mom. (This is several years after starting with him.) To put … Read more
The political climate is sucking the life energy out of us. There is too much to fight to be able to do it all. There is too much going on even to stay on top of it all. There are too many giant steps backwards, undoing decades of work. There are too many people whose … Read more
Please, if you are going to make the effort to make a New Year’s resolution, please take some steps to make it more likely to be successful. (If you have no intention of keeping it, don’t bother making it.) Some steps: Make it something in your control: “The garage will get cleaned out,” when what … Read more
The Kid suggested yesterday that we leave out cookies and milk for Santa. We have always told him that Santa is a story, but he loves pretending. (This morning: “I heard Santa on the roof last night!”) By bedtime, he had forgotten about the milk and cookies, but we left out a plate with crumbs … Read more
While many of us have families that are less than ideal to spend time with, a couple of things have shown up lately that put some perspective on that. First, in my On This Day on Facebook, my post about Santa coming to school has shown up multiple times. (Different days for different years.) I … Read more
Yesterday, I posted more or less the transcript of my session about sugar, and I promised you that today, I would give you advice on dealing with all of that information and what you can expect as a result of your hard work. Read labels. (Ask me if you don’t know how—I’ll teach you.) Use … Read more
My school district does something at the beginning of each year for staff, to try to give us a common inspirational thing that in theory would carry through the year but rarely lives for more than a week or two. This year, we were each to engrave a word on a “my intention” bracelet. It … Read more