So we’re back.

Our trip to Houston was a whole lot of fun, a little bit of relaxing and as an added bonus, included a touch of the stomach flu. Yes, the stomach flu. Let’s just say that when you are traveling and your two-year old gets the stomach flu, you thank God you are staying with good friends, friends who are empathetic, helpful and above all, have a good and hard-working washing machine. [more]

T. and I officially finished all of our holiday baking yesterday. And even though I love holiday baking and cookie-making, I have to say that by the time the last of the dough remnants were scraped off the counter, and the last bowl washed, and the last tray of cookies taken out of the oven, I was more than happy to have reached the end of it all. [more]

Many, many years ago, when I went with my parents to the train station to take my brother back to another semester of graduate school in Mississippi, and my mother was sad about his departure, I remember my brother cheerfully telling all of us not to worry, because Mississippi was just “at the other end of a long track.” It was a comforting thought, really; this idea that there was one long line of steel and wood and we were at one end and there, far away at another point, would be my brother, going about his graduate school life. [more]