My October To-Do List: Media Activity in a Fun Flurry
As the month comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on my October to-do list: what I accomplished and what there is left to do. While I finished a bunch of things, I still have items on my July to-do list that aren’t crossed off. But I also tackled stuff I hadn’t planned on! Overall, I felt pretty productive during October and, outside of a refrigerator full of stale food, felt healthy and well organized. Here’s the month’s journey in brief. The Health of a Gardener Who Writes I’ve been…
Was My Sweet Puppy Sent by a Dog From Heaven?
My friend once told me my dog Olive was sent to me by my dog Arrow. Arrow passed away about a month before Olive came into our lives. My friend speculated that Arrow knew I was upset about his passing and he wanted to console me with another mixed breed dog. Olive was a wiggly puppy, abandoned by the side of the road on New Year’s Day and found by a kind soul in the Seattle area. She was skinny and filthy and had fleas. But with a good bath…
A Hectic Vacation
Whether I like it or not, I’m inundated right now with work and visitors. August is always a month of visitors for us because two of my children were born in August and relatives like to come for their birthdays — which for me means cleaning and guests and cake and touring around the region. Writing is out the window (unless you count a bit of revising in bed at night). Here are a few Seattle sites worth visiting and where we’ve spent our days.
Can You Be a Writer and Have Kids?
During this last spring break, I took my three children to visit my mother and aunt in Tucson, Arizona. It was a bright, loud, active, social time. We yakked on about everything from politics to the names of my daughter’s new dolls. We went swimming. Drank smoothies. Ate dinner in the warm shade. Broke up arguments about who’d done the right or wrong thing. Walked around the desert. Watched birds. Avoided touching cactuses. Shopped. Cleaned. Laughed. And all else interactive and external. Kids Are Interactive and External While I enjoyed…
7th Grade Is the New College
Next year, my son will enter middle school. And in learning about middle school, I realized middle school, at least in our school district near Seattle, is not middle school as I knew it. It’s more intense. There’s not a lot of fooling around. You have to register for classes. You create your own schedule. Classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays are longer, the others on weekdays, shorter. There are a wealth of electives to register for. Different levels of band and orchestra and ensembles to audition for. Life Studies classes…
