There’s something I wish I could give to my friends who are moms of toddlers and babies. I wish I could give you a taste of what I see, now that my oldest children are teenagers. I want to give this to you, because I know you are tired. I know it feels like some…
EDITOR’S NOTE: This very important essay first appeared on Story Warren in 2013, and it’s high time we re-visited it. I wish I could remember how many times your father has read the Narnia books to you. During those slow years when you still had time to crawl up into a lap and listen, you…
Editor’s Note: Let’s have another look at this classic summertime post from 2017. It’s a good one! I’m 45-years-old, sitting in a locked bedroom, with one towel wrapped around my body and another wrapped around my hair. I’m wearing this because I’m hiding from my extroverted child. Over the past twenty years, I have learned…
In 1972 my mother’s piano professor failed her senior recital because she was pregnant with me. She was a married woman, and that recital was one of the best performances of her life; however, the man had a point to make. A pianist as brilliant as my mother had no business changing the diapers of…
The lesson was forced upon me. As a working mother, I couldn’t read like I wanted to read. Awake by four-thirty or five, my day began with a mad rush to collect lunches and afterschool supplies. From eight to five, I was teaching and grading papers. From five to seven, I was carting kids around…
It is not easy to teach children the reverence of sanctuaries or funerals. They recognize the absurdity of nylon tights, buckle shoes that pinch, and powdered people (be they sitting upright in pews or lying in their caskets). They wriggle at shushings, and readings, and ties – silly, choking things – for in those first…
My husband can tell that my annual bout of parenting fatigue has arrived when I lock myself in our bedroom with the laptop and a half-pint of Starbucks Java Chip ice cream. I’ll sit on the bed crying into a soft old t-shirt from college, rattle around YouTube, and occasionally whimper, “I can’t do this…
I was cleaning out a box of stuff in my youngest son’s bedroom when I found a homemade book — five or six pieces of white paper folded in half and stapled down the middle to make a spine. The pages were packed with little kid drawings and some words to a story. My organized…
Once upon a time there were two little pigs named Gurgle and Snot. “Snot” doesn’t sound like a very nice name in human language, but in pig language, “Snot” sounds more like “Charlie.” Snot was the most polite pig you could ever meet. He said things like, “It’s very nice to meet you” when he…
Once upon a midnight purple, oceans churned with maple surple. Pancake ships with waffled decks held berried treasures from Uzbek- A-Something-East on Daddy’s map. “Butter me timbers!” yelled Flap Jack, “For thar she blows! The great white fluff! A thousand whippings made her tough! In all my days upon this ship, Ne’er man or beast…
Stinky Feet words by Rebecca Reynolds and Ry Wilson, music and performance by Ry Wilson photo credit: Carey Pace (www.careypace.com) V1 Once there was a bitty boy with tinky stinky feet His momma loved him dearly, And she treated him so sweet. His momma said to shower, But the bitty boy would not…
As you know, Fridays at SW are for kids. Today’s edition features some extra fun. Mrs. Reynolds has not only written a charming story, but has also recorded an audio version you can listen to! And, while you’re listening, you can color a picture from the story! I asked her (yesterday) if she would consider…
