This heat is unbearable right now, but I love summer. There are surprise blooms everywhere. I find it almost impossible to believe that these hydrangeas were growing in my backyard. These flowers look so luscious and perfect — like something you might find as a prop for a Lauren Bacall movie or something. But, no, [...]
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I stayed up late, after you went to sleep, because upcoming 9-year-olds need more sleep than their 15 and 12-year old brothers. I warned your brothers not to touch your cake, because I was going to ice and decorate it for you the next morning. So, imagine my surprise, to find out that the pristine [...]
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On birthdays, and sometimes for special nights — but mostly on birthdays, an Angel Food Cake always graces our table. I think the tradition started, or evolved, because I have never liked cake — preferring pie instead. But my mom always insisted that I have cake. So, the Angel Food cake, sweeter than pie, but [...]
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After spending the summer jumping off a wooden dock we took the birthday boy to the city pool, where there were diving boards, chlorine, and cement sidewalks. He asked if he could jump off the diving boards. I didn’t know. Could he swim to the ladder? So hard to know, as the lake obscures so [...]
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Diamonds, rubies and jewels are tough to come by at the lake, so when my birthday came last week, the boys had few gifts on-hand. One of the boys knew exactly what I wanted, and he slipped quietly out the door, and collected what was available. In the spirit of Charlotte Zolotow’s, Mr. Rabbit and [...]
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Last fall, we felt lucky if they scored one goal during a game. The coach told them if they practiced and worked on their drills, they’d be in the championship game by spring. We appreciated the coach’s optimism. Today, as we pulled into the parking lot of the spring soccer tournament for our third game [...]
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He interrupted my writing time – that time I try to carve out in the early morning hours before the light creates shadows and reveals to me what the world really does look like, rather than what appears in my imagination. It was his right to do this; it’s his birthday. So I told him [...]
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“So, Mom, I’m wondering what we’ll have for my birthday dinner?” Thinking to myself: Get real. After the time and work involved in getting your present, hiding your present, catering this and that for the school end of year parties, planning your party… there is NO SPECIAL DINNER!!! In my calmest voice possible I say, [...]
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A few days after the 7-year-old hosted his friends to a rip-roaring birthday party that included ball-pit fun, and gambling away tokens at the slot machines, I presented him with his Thank You cards. “You never told me this! You should have warned me before I invited everyone.” Clutching his colored pencil like a bear [...]
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