Like everyone (I assume) in the US, we’ve been inundated with political ads. We don’t watch TV, so that helps. But the volume of postcards has been ridiculous. In particular, we received a postcard most days for several weeks, telling us the evils of one specific (not presidential) candidate. If I didn’t know the state-level … Read more
A combination of misc details from around life recently… We have Smurf glasses (think 80s McDonalds collectibles) and The Kid was asking about Smurfs. One of the glasses features Handy Smurf which got me to thinking about how he was my favorite, and how I would pretend to be him when I was a kid, … Read more
This post passed through my Facebook memories and it helped me to synthesize some of what’s going on. Maybe it will help you, too. This activity has circulated for a while in parenting and teaching circles in the hope of teaching children to understand the power of words. In case you can’t read the text … Read more
Procrastination has showed up in several podcasts in the last few weeks. The content has conflicted in some ways, but I took some bits from them and plan to use them. (Always: take what you can use and leave the rest.) These things are so obvious and fall into place so easily that I can’t … Read more
Adults often reference the awkwardness of growing up, of adolescence. And sure, that’s a weird time in life because so much is new and we have no choice but to muscle through the weirdness, surrounded by other people who are in a similar position, led often by people who are condescending and dismissive. We have … Read more
When I was in college, the phrase “keyboard skills” evoked many negative reactions from many of us. Learning to play piano was, succinctly, not a good time. But even at the college level, we weren’t handed a Beethoven piano sonata and asked to plunk it out by whatever means necessary. This is what we’re doing … Read more
The Kid mentioned to me the other day: “Mom, did you know Tony the Tiger donates money to keep sports in schools?” We had a short conversation about it, and I told him I’d look up the details. Here are the details: you buy a box of Frosted Flakes. You upload your receipt, and Kellogg’s … Read more
Valentine’s Day is coming up (if January ever ends)… A gift that provokes anxiety or guilt (or both!) is not a good gift. If your partner is reducing or eliminating junk food, buying chocolate, cookies, candies, etc. is not a thoughtful thing to do. Likewise, if you’re reducing or eliminating junk food, don’t ask for … Read more
“You choose what you put out into the world.” I don’t remember where this crossed my path recently, but it was timely. It ties in to an earlier post about negative people—from a first-person perspective. My output of complaining goes in cycles. When I notice it’s increasing, I make an effort to cut it back. … Read more
I started listening to the Work Life podcast, by Adam Grant. I love it! Super-interesting. Since they’re relatively close to the beginning of the podcast, I started at the beginning. Season 1, Episode 3 was “The Problem with All Stars,” and while it was interesting to listen to, the piece that was most striking to … Read more