One Cobble at a Time

A phone call illustrates change

“Hi Mrs. Tayler, this is Gleek’s Teacher.”
My heart sank. “Hi. How can I help you.”
“Oh don’t worry this is a good call.”
I swallowed. “Really?”
“Yes. I just wanted to tell you that Gleek and I made an agreement that she would get some writing done by Thursday and she finished it today. [...]

Schedule as puzzle

The first step to assembling a jigsaw puzzle is to spread the pieces out on the table and turn them over so I can see the shapes and colors. At that point the table is covered and it looks like there is no way for all the pieces to be assembled into a coherent [...]

Experimenting with sugar and alternative medicine

In Terry Pratchett’s books the witch Granny Weatherwax uses Headology to help people more than she uses magic. Headology uses both psychology and trickery to adjust people’s behaviors. In the case of a man with chest pains, Granny told him that he’d been bewitched by nymphs who lived in a waterfall. All [...]

Kiki on the road

There are many times in a parent’s life when she wonders what on earth she was thinking when she agreed to a particular endeavor. I’ve felt that way about lessons, birthday parties, games, toys, and treats. Today’s revisitation of the feeling was the moment when I sat in my van with Kiki at [...]

Two Kids, Two Schools

Gleek and I climbed into the car and I backed out of the driveway. We were our way to meet her new Fourth Grade teacher and to take a quick reading test. Gleek sat quietly in her seat. Subdued. Not a typical emotional state for her.
“Are you worried about school starting?” [...]

A Trio of Thoughts on a Sunday Afternoon

I have succeeded in rummaging through everyone’s drawers and assembling a set of clothes that will look coordinated for a family photo tomorrow morning. The intelligent thing to do would have been to do the rummaging yesterday so that I could go shopping if necessary. But I was not ready to think about [...]

Dinner, Driving, and the Impending School Year

I made dinner from raw ingredients and the kids did not like it. This is completely normal, except for the part where I made dinner from raw ingredients. Today provided enough space in my brain for me to notice the half dozen apples which had gone soft, but not yet rotten. I [...]

Opening Day of GenCon

My job at this event is to be a facilitator. I run for packages, fetch food, shepherd kids, assure communication, and monitor the emotional states of those under my care. The kids weathered the first day really well. Link divided his time between the Lego giant inflatable pyramid and the electronic gaming [...]

The not-so-typical teenager in my house

The following conversation is a shortened representation of what was a much more convoluted discussion. I’ve just skimmed the essence of what was said to present here:
“He’s squashing my life!” bemoaned Kiki. We’d just spend an evening with a writer’s group in our home, during which Howard had pulled Kiki aside and corrected [...]

Pets of four varieties

“What is that chirping noise?” Howard called from his office.
“That’s Sweetie. We’re babysitting him for the next week.”
“What?”
“It’s a parakeet honey. We have a bird in our house. He’s trying to get someone to come talk to him.”
“Oh. I thought someone was torturing a computer.”
****
Yesterday Bob and Joe the grasshoppers [...]