This Halloween continued the trend of child-led costume assembly that began last year. I’m all in favor because it appeals to my general laziness and to my “bah, humbug” attitude about holidays, especially holidays that don’t involve roast turkey. So, my children took the reins with decorating and costume assembly while I served as aContinue reading “Halloween Pie 2017”
Category Archives: Happiness Project
Footloose and Fitness Tracker-Free
In June 2014, I bought a fitness tracker. I got myself a Fitbit One to wear on my hip rather than a wristband tracker because I really liked wearing my watch. I wore the tracker all day and all night, every day and every night. In 2016, hoping to shake things up by increasing theContinue reading “Footloose and Fitness Tracker-Free”
Pushing Appliances to Their Limits
Tonight while we were making dinner, our twenty-six-year-old stove went kaput. Luckily, just yesterday we got a new toaster since the one we bought in 2003 stopped working the day we got back from vacation. “What timing!” I thought. Surely we can use the toaster to do some of the tasks we normally delegate to theContinue reading “Pushing Appliances to Their Limits”
Nursery Song
Today, my daughter recounted for us a story she’d read about a pregnant woman who put headphones on her belly so her baby could listen to music. When my children stopped laughing, I told them I’d done just that when I was pregnant the first time. I’d read somewhere that if you play a song for yourContinue reading “Nursery Song”
Halloween Pie 2016
It’s Halloween once again! This year to celebrate their third reading of The Lord of the Rings (including an audiobook and a read-aloud by each of their parents), my daughter dressed up as Legolas and my son dressed up as Aragorn. I provided transportation to the thrift store and the funds to purchase items, but theContinue reading “Halloween Pie 2016”
Keep on Rollin’
I’ve got Black Water by the Doobie Brothers stuck in my head, and I’m glad about it. For at least the past five years, I’ve been thinking a lot about who I am. Consumed by my roles as wife and mother, I can’t seem to recall who I was before, and lately I’ve become more andContinue reading “Keep on Rollin’”
How to build a house in an afternoon.
I share genetics with some very crafty people. When we were kids, my mom would hand-sew our costumes each Halloween, often creating the patterns herself or dramatically modifying existing patterns to bring into reality the costumes of her imagination—a tree (with a nest and birds on top), a rabbit in a hat, a black widow spider,Continue reading “How to build a house in an afternoon.”
To Drink Deeply
“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.” -from Walden by Henry DavidContinue reading “To Drink Deeply”
Halloween Pie 2015
Categorizing and graphing my kids’ candy haul has become an annual tradition. And my kids, as nerdy as their parents apparently, cheer more for making pie charts than they do for the candy itself. Here’s how it all panned out this year: As in years past, my more-selective daughter had less variety in her candyContinue reading “Halloween Pie 2015”
Ungrateful
My constant companion is anxiety—with just a smidge of depression—that I keep in check (mostly) with diet, mindfulness, journaling, an hour or more of exercise each day, and one massage a month. It works, mostly, to keep the eddy of worry from swirling into panic, but it’s a delicate balance and when my spouse goes outContinue reading “Ungrateful”
