I love this photo. I was flipping through the pictures on my phone last night and noticed it. Then I realized it’s from the Last Outing with Grandma, when we went to the Ritz for afternoon tea. That was February 7. She died two weeks later. Now it’s almost April. It hasn’t been long, not at […]

Last night, I got out the two huge Rubbermaids with the girls’ summer clothes, and almost got through the official seasonal exchange before I passed out — with just one load of laundry and another basketful left to put away. (In our world, the seasonal exchange means swapping a few light jackets for dozens of […]

I’m mad at the PTA. So it’s probably a good thing I can’t make it to the school’s silent auction fundraiser tomorrow night. To be fair, it’s not the entire PTA I’m mad at. Some of my best friends are members. But I’m not. Long before Annabelle started kindergarten, I swore I would never join the PTA. I […]

I couldn’t wait to hear how Ms. X’s classroom observation went. “How’d it go?” I texted toward the end of the day. “Was Sophie swinging from the chandeliers?” No no, Sophie did really well, Ms. X insisted, and her classroom observation with the principal was great. So great she wanted to celebrate, so we met […]

This morning the girls and I were cuddling in bed, and I was stalling, waiting a few more moments before starting our suddenly upside down day. Annabelle is home sick; she woke up in the middle of the night with a fever that wound up being yet another bug that’s going around. That meant: cancelling school; […]

I love kindergarten. I spent a couple hours in Sophie’s classroom this morning, and yesterday’s sour mood washed away in a sea of Tempera paint. I cracked up when I overheard one kid say, “I love how that paint smells!” Me, too. Now, that’s not to say that I could ever teach kindergarten, or spend more […]

I woke up this morning feeling out of sorts. Rather, I finally gave up and rolled out of bed to start the day — feeling out of sorts. I wonder why I’m tired all the time. Duh. A recap of last night: I fell asleep on the couch at 10. Crawled to bed at 11. Sophie came in […]

I’m feeling  guilty. As soon as I read about President Obama’s gaffe on Jay Leno last night, I immediately began to make excuses for him in my head. Then I had to stop and wonder how I would have felt if John McCain had said the same thing. I know how I would have felt. […]

And now for a commercial announcement. The Scottsdale Arts Festival is sweatily underway (my car thermometer insists it’s over 90 degrees this afternoon) in — you guessed it — Scottsdale. Years ago, I found one of my now-favorite artists at the festival: Amanda Blake, creator of the beautiful artwork that graces this blog and inspired its […]

Boy, do I wish I used that word disparagingly. Because it really applies here. Just the other day, an out-of-stater remarked (again) that she just doesn’t understand my state of Arizona — a place where you can have Down syndrome but not qualify for services for the developmentally disabled. Yeah, I don’t understand it either. Maybe State […]