It's the end of the week, and I can safely say that through all the rushing back and forth, the meetings, the staying up late to work, and the pressing deadlines, I did apparently squeeze in time to clear out that mental closet of mine. In fact, I cleared it out so much that I have bags of stuff at the curb, waiting for trash pickup on Tuesday. [more]

I'm probably like most parents in that I have a love/hate relationship with my child's interest in computers and the Internet--especially on the weekends. On the weekends, L. bounces around at home, unsure what to do with himself, and he often holes himself up in the office for hours on end, clicking and playing his two loves--SimCity and Microsoft Flight Simulator--or visiting favorite websites. [more]

While I really do love Sundays, there is something a little soulful about them. Everyone is happy to have slept in, to stay in pajamas, and eat pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, but there's a pinch of discontent in the air because, as the day wears on, we all know that Monday is just around the corner. Sundays are busy days for me--and for Scott, too. Because of how much juggling we do, Sunday evenings are almost always turned over to work, with the added weight of having to prepare the kids' things for school the next day, and line up childcare provisions for meeting weeks. [more]

L. is all over these books lately. He asked for books one and two for Christmas and I gladly obliged. He rarely expresses any interest in books that are "fiction" and not detailed guides to his latest obsession (in this case aviation). But I had noticed in the weeks leading up to the holiday break that almost all the kids in his class were buying the books at the Scholastic book fair and toting around copies of them, laughing at the jokes, and swapping "how far have you read?" challenges. When L. [more]

I remember being younger and staring out the window in silent desperation, willing snow to fall so we'd have a snow day and miss school. I remember my parents fussing about how inconvenient snow would be, and worried that we WOULD get a snow day, and I remember the stodgy, annoying weathermen who would gush about how lucky we'd be if the snow did miss us and wouldn't that be a relief? I also remember thinking fervently, please don't let me grow up to be someone who complains about snow days. [more]