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
One of the last books I read just before Caitlin was born, almost eleven years ago now, was Larry McMurtry’s Buffalo Girls . How do I know that for certain? Because in that book is the chorus to the song, Buffalo Girls. It goes:
Buf-falo Girls won’t you come out to-night,
come out to-night, come out tonight,
Buf-falo Girls won’t you come out to-night,
and dance by the light of the moon.
And why would that chorus be memorable … Read More
Like dogs, I find that people fall into two main categories–those who look down and those who look up. By down I mean looking at what’s in front of us–the earthly things. By up I mean looking at what’s up in the sky–the vision of things happening overhead.
Like Graidy, who, as part bird dog, instinctively looks up to find movement (as contrasted by Kiera, my herder, who instinctively looks down and around for movement) I’ve always been drawn to … Read More
Along with my stepson, Colin (the other handy person in our family), I built this swing-set for Cait several years ago. I sketched the plan, figured out the lumber list, got the materials home, and Colin and I had the whole thing built in a day. Andrew, who isn’t especially handy with tools, and Cait, who was four at the time, were very helpful go-fers. It has stood in sturdy stead all these years.
We built it because Cait had … Read More
Kiera sits as sentry, while Cait and I get ready for a little stargazing before shut-eye. No amount of coaxing will get her to join us in the tent. Her self-appointed job is to periodically patrol the perimeters of our property.
Good thing she’s safely fenced in and other critters fenced out, because we live on a little corner of the wild kingdom. Cait and I sleep well knowing that she’s on the job.… Read More
Caitlin does a wonderful job of taking care of her kitten, Finnegan. (I still can’t get over that my daughter has turned out to be a cat person rather than a dog person…) Except for one thing. She’s not loving cleaning the litter box, and so needs to be reminded.
When I ask her this morning, she replies that she hasn’t. I suggest that she take care of it, while it’s still fresh on her mind.
She starts walking out … Read More
Cait and I have a longstanding bedtime tradition. She snuggles in, I sit next to her, and we talk about the day. We always start with Best Part, Worst Part, and Don’t Tell. Best Part is for talking about the best part of our day. Likewise for Worst Part. Cait came up with the Don’t Tell some years back when she’d desperately wanted to tell me a secret. It has morphed into sharing with each other … Read More
A couple of years back, Cait was facing some difficult changes. No amount of putting a happy face on how it would all work out made a dent. She was focused on the loss and the feeling that she couldn’t control what was happening to her. I watched my happy-go-lucky, optimistic daughter turn into a despondent worrier.
Having spent my professional adulthood looking deeply into people’s lives, I fully understood how, sometimes, it only took one life event to cause … Read More
