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 […]