As I struggled to make it through the Holiday hoopla with a good attitude, I had a momentary lapse during an especially tiresome gathering.
Briefly moving away from the crowd, wanting to catch a second wind, I stepped outside, looked up at the stars, and quietly sighed, “God help me…”
Cait, never more than a few inches away from me in these kinds of social situations, and not missing a beat, said, “God can only help when there’s a problem, … Read More
One of the many responsibilities I feel as a mother is to teach my daughter how to develop a social conscience. In a modern world where it’s so easy to get lost in one’s own personal pains and pleasures, I want Caitlin to at least be conscious that there’s a whole big world out there that, in fact, doesn’t revolve around her.
I look at the task as akin to Galileo trying to convince the Catholic Church that the sun … Read More
I love to hike in the woods. Before Cait was born, Kiera-1 and I’d take off and be gone the whole day– I’d pack a lunch, bring a book to read, carry some water, and we’d be set — just her and me in the middle of nature. There was nothing I loved more.
The first time I tried to take Cait hiking with me, she was just four. It was an abysmal failure. I’d made the mistake of forcing … Read More
Cait dreamt about my father last night, which she does on occasion. My father and Cait had a thing for each other while he was alive. She often expresses how much she misses him, and how she really wishes that she had a grandfather. (Andrew’s dad died several years ago as well.)
Though my daughter has the most wonderful grandmother, my mother, in her life (and that counts for a lot), I feel badly for her that she doesn’t have … Read More
Just having finished raking the leaves from our beautiful Maple tree into a pile of brilliant reds and spun golds, it reminded me of one of my favorite pictures of Cait. She’s peeking out from under a leaf pile she’s just belly-flopped into. She’s only 4 yrs old here. How the years fly…… Read More
I was awakened at 2:30 this morning by a flash of light outside our bedroom window.
I’m accustomed to the odd nighttime event, being a Dreamer and all, and this was definitely odd. Mainly because the dogs didn’t bark. Actually, I guess that was the good news. It meant there were no intruders on the property. (I’ve had intruders on my property before–during one of the very few times I didn’t have dogs–and it was the ultimate in creepy and … Read More
Cait and I went Trick-or-Treating with friends last night, and, for the first time in decades, I experienced Halloween as I remembered it as a kid.
For a time, when I was young, we lived in a great neighborhood where everyone knew each other and the kids all played in one big pack. In that neighborhood, Halloween was celebrated with as much fanfare as Christmas. Everyone decorated their houses. Costumes were thought out and planned in advance. Halloween night had … Read More
Cait has been pretty lucky with her teachers so far; they’ve all been good for her. This year is her luckiest yet. She has a teacher who loves the outdoors as much as she loves teaching kids. Every year, this teacher takes her class to the Nature Trails as part of her science unit. She uses nature to help bring science alive.
Today, for the second of several trips, Cait’s class spent an hour hiking through the woods, observing and … Read More
