I’ve been worried about and mystified by C lately. It’s hard to explain, but she hasn’t been herself. Or she has been herself, just more so.
C, intensified.
She is naturally a very competent and controlled person. Lately this has veered into outright anxiety. R and I have a code, “Knock-knock,” when she gets like this. It’s […]

Little she-who-is turns 7 today. All week long we were preparing her for fewer gifts on her actual birthday because of the disruptions from the storm. She doesn’t care. It’s her birthday and that’s reason enough for celebration. Love that kid.
Been working with some friends on a study guide for Barbara Brown Taylor’s An Altar […]

This past summer I co-presided at a memorial service for a man whose young adult daughter read a long poem consisting of statements about her father. It was a fantastic litany of good and bad all jumbled together. This is in that vein, though today was mostly good.

You read with confidence now, and even when […]

C really wants to be Word Girl for Halloween.
Any hints for assembling such a costume?
And yes, J is SO gonna be Captain Huggy Face.

I’m back from my little trip to see the Tiny Church family in the hospital in Midwestern City. It was a hard visit, but I’m glad I went. Also, it snowed. On October 10.
I had written a note to the kids on the big whiteboard in the kitchen, and wrote down the days so […]

In reverse chronological order:
R is a guitar hero! I’d take pictures but the kids have decided to attend this birthday party while naked.
been reading a few sermons for a friend, who’d asked for feedback. Makes me think I should do the same. Volunteers? A swap?
alas, the cute guy in the coffee shop has left and […]

A few photos (most posted on FB) and random things I don’t want to lose:

little she-who-is
Photo: C will help R in the kitchen sometimes, but this is the first time she actually chopped!
C hasn’t found any four-leaf clovers recently, but she continues to be delighted by the little things she finds with her sharp eyes. […]

This past weekend we took the kids and Mamala to a “family show” with the reverendfamily’s perennial favorite, Billy Jonas. I found out about the concert completely by accident—was planning to send a CD to one of our relatives and discovered that he was going to be in town.
As I’ve shared many times here, […]

My daughter is a freak!

Mind you, she typically does not search for them. She looks down and plucks them up like you’d pick a dandelion.
Have a lucky day!

Dear little she-who-is…
I am always observing you and your siblings doing funny and smart and annoying and wonderful stuff, and am forever composing in my head some notes about these precious things, because I know I will forget them. You also love stories about past events so I want to be ready with some details. […]

I’m still standin’…. yeah! yeah! yeah!

“In the summer I have fun in Maine looking for garnets. In the summer I like to go to the swimming pool. I play with bubbles.”
It’s the “duds” for “bubbles” that makes it art.

I had a friend who had an unnatural talent for finding four-leaf clovers. She’d just look down and there they’d be.
C seems to have that talent too. She’s found four six in the last two weeks. Now they don’t all jump out at her—she will often crouch for a few minutes at a time, […]

So I mentioned in my sidebar that C was on track in kindergarten but ahead in writing.
This morning at breakfast we told her that the family of one of her neighbor friends is being reassigned at the end of the year and they will be moving to another city. After asking a few questions to […]

Today I took little she-who-is to tour the Home of Father of Our Country. I’ve only been there once before and it was cold and rainy. Today was gorgeous, and crowded, but not inconveniently so. One of the docents said that on the day before the inauguration they accommodated 16,000 “very happy” visitors.
C is […]

Spring is finally here… on the calendar, anyway. This afternoon the kids enjoyed getting outside, even though it was still pretty cool.
C has been counting down the days. Several weeks ago she made a whole string of boxes with numbers in them and has patiently been erasing one each day. The “20″ has been getting […]

We love the book Owl Babies, and not just because our college mascot is the owl. It’s about three little snowy owls who wake up to find their mother gone, hunting for food—well, they’re pretty sure that’s what she’s doing, but things are a little spooky without Mommy in the middle of the night.
We […]

Tonight, reading The Snowy Day:
Me: Then he went into his warm house. He told his mother all about his adventures while she took off his wet socks. [next page] And he thought and thought and thought about them.
C: He’s thinking about his wet socks.
M: No, C! He’s thinking about his ‘ventures!

Image: from the lovely book […]

This is her first unassisted writing.
And… some recent conversations:
Me: C, what do you do when people make fun of you? Does that ever happen?
C: I just ignore them.
Me: How do you do that? I think that’s hard to do.
C: I can hear their voices, I just don’t answer them.
Me: Why do you think people do […]