My mother and her mother both became grandmothers at age forty-eight. My father’s mother was even younger when her first grandchild was born. Here I am, closing in on sixty, and I don’t see any prospects for grandchildren any time soon. But I do have a granddog. A year ago, […]
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Returning to Childhood With Favorite Books
I’ve written before about the importance of reading in my family when I was growing up (see here and here), and about how my husband and I read out loud to our kids when they were small (here). I recently had occasion to revisit some of my favorite children’s books. […]
Continue readingA Halloween Spin
As I’ve written before, I don’t usually dress up in costume on Halloween. But one year I did. It was the year my daughter wore a homemade clown costume, a hand-me-down from her cousin. When I told a friend at work that my daughter was going to be a clown, […]
Continue readingOn Homes and Stability
This coming Sunday, September 13, is Grandparents Day. I was searching for a topic involving grandparents to write about, and I came across a post I wrote about my maternal grandparents’ house. I said in that post that these grandparents lived in that house from 1937 until 1962—twenty-five years. I […]
Continue readingWhich Is More Awesome—Mount Rainier or the Blue Angels?
After the Cannon Beach portion of my recent trip west, my husband and I spent a few days in Seattle with our daughter. For these days also we had lovely weather, and Mount Rainier appeared on the horizon most days. I always marvel at this mountain, which looms thousands of […]
Continue readingSounds of Cicadas
Many memories are triggered by milestone anniversaries—things that happened five or ten or twenty-five years ago. But this memory of mine returned because of a seventeen-year anniversary. The seventeen-year cicadas are back this summer. It’s been so rainy that I haven’t been outside to hear them much, but the news reports […]
Continue readingStories I Couldn’t Tell Before: The Communion Host
I’ve known since I began writing this blog that there were stories I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) tell until after my parents were dead. But I thought it would be many more years before I could tell them. A year ago, both of my parents were alive (though my mother’s Alzheimer’s […]
Continue readingDaddy’s Date . . . No, Make that Grandpa’s Date!
The church where my sister was married had a very firm rule that any children who were members of the wedding party had to be at least five. My son, at age six, qualified to be a ring bearer. My daughter, who would turn three just days before the wedding, […]
Continue readingFamily Resemblances Redux
I hadn’t seen this picture of my mother until I found it in an old picture album when I was preparing a slide show of her life for her funeral last summer. I love the youth and innocence she depicts from a time long before she was my mother. Until […]
Continue readingYou Know Your Children Are Grown When . . . [Part IV]
Here’s another list of instances when I have been struck by how independent and mature (well, most of the time) my children are. You know your children are grown when . . . 1. You see them for the first time after your parent dies and you burst into tears and […]
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