One thing I do not enjoy about summertime.

Our kickoff party for Vacation Bible School is coming up soon, and it’s being held at a local private swim club.  Because this year I am forcing Spawn to go to VBS (hey, if I have to be on the snacks committee for it, the kid is going), we will be attending the party.  Spawn [...]

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Loves me, loves me not.

So today is my 15th anniversary. 
The fact that my husband and I have been hitched for 15 arduous years makes us something of a minority within our circle of friends.  We’ve seen the rise and fall of many a relationship over the years, and as a result we don’t have a lot of “couple friends.” 
When [...]

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Ten months later…

Today is the last day of first grade. 
We were supposed to be out of school on the 15th but we missed a lot of school due to weather this year, which extended the school year a couple of weeks.  Now the end is here. 
I’m having a hard time deciding which is more nerve-wracking for Mama [...]

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Trying to let it go.

My inlaws were their usual, charming selves this weekend.  I spent my Sunday afternoon picking cigarette butts up off my front lawn and briefly considering putting them into an envelope and mailing them back to the offending party with a note: “here, you forgot these.” 
Today I sent an email off to one of my friends [...]

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A parental cautionary tale.

My best friend, like most all of my friends, has a teenager in her home.  Two, in fact.  I’m down here in the minor leagues because I waited past the age of 30 to have a baby, and so I watch the things that my friends are going through with their older children.  And I [...]

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Kyew-pons

I am starting to hyperventilate a little bit over money these days. 
When it takes over $40 to full up my little bitty car, and my weekly grocery budget brings home fewer items, and I’ve got bills coming out my ass, well, I can’t seem to enjoy life too much. 
I’ve started back on shopping with coupons [...]

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You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose. Or your inlaws.

I realize that as an only child I have a well-developed sense of what’s mine and I have some difficulty being charitable, excusing behavior out of someone just because they’re family.  My husband is a lot better at it than I am.  Either that or I have impossibly high standards.  It’s hard to tell. 
I never thought [...]

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April may be the cruellest month, but May ain’t no picnic, either.

I finally was able to get my garden tilled over the weekend, and what did the tiller kick up but a man’s wallet.  Now, I live in town, on a corner, and my vegetable garden is near the street.  I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised by what I find there, since living on a [...]

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Easy come, easy go.

It was a good-news/bad-news weekend. 
The good news is, Spawn won the school walkathon, collecting the most money out of anyone in first grade.  This was accomplished with the help of several suckers who pledged the kid a dollar a lap, never dreaming that the kid would walk 48 laps in half an hour.  I am [...]

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Can I get an Amen?

Today I was up, out, and in church by 7AM for Spawn’s first-grade mass.  The nice thing about mass at 7 in the morning on a weekday is you’re in and out in half an hour. 
Then it was to the gym where I walked four miles. 
Then to my own church where I spent two+ hours working [...]

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