Growing a Victory Garden. Is it Worth the Trouble?
Like many gardeners, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and people started shopping for food in bulk, I wondered whether I should grow a victory garden. Victory gardens were large kitchen gardens homeowners kept during World Wars I and II as a way of ensuring food for themselves and others. Since…
Keeping a Special Needs Kid Busy During Covid-19
Monday, Day 5 By Monday, our family settled into this new life of sequestration. My husband hunkered down in his mountain of work, my son started taking walks, my daughter practiced her saxophone, and my youngest, well, she is a special needs kid so it’s more difficult to keep her…
An Overworked Engineer Husband During Covid-19
Sunday, Day 4 Just as my daughter started to recover from the flu, my husband got slammed with work. He’s a software architect at a large networking company. They make team-connecting software called WebEx. Well, after several governors announced school closures because of the coronavirus outbreak, parents across the U.S.…
A Fever and Bedroom Quarantine During Covid-19
Saturday, Day 3 As I wrote in my last post, my daughter came down with a flu late last week. She’d been getting the chills and couldn’t sleep after her band trip to Ireland had been cancelled. While I’d hoped the mild fever she’d had of a 100.5 would go…
My Daughter Has a Flu During Covid-19
Friday: Day 2 So just as we were coping with my kids’ cancelled band trip to Ireland, my daughter started feeling unwell. A few days earlier, she’d gone for a walk with a friend who’d recently recovered from a flu. Also, she was home because her high school had just…
A Mom’s Diary During Covid-19
First Day Home From School, Thursday The virus Covid-19 has turned our family life upside down, in more ways than one. Plans cancelled, illness, work surges. We live just north of Seattle, not far from Kirkland where the first cases in Washington state appeared. Our governor has closed all schools…
The Perfect Way for Me to Celebrate Galentine’s Day
I have watched every episode of the show Parks and Recreation, many of them twice. And yet I never remembered Leslie Knope talking about Galentine’s Day. What is Galentine’s Day? Well, as Leslie says, it’s ladies celebrating ladies. A day, right before Valentine’s Day, when you recognize those special female…
The Strange Sensation of Being a Book Star for an Hour
A few weeks ago, I debuted as an author. Just me, no one else. I’d read in public many times, but I had always read alongside other fellow writers, never on my own. This was the first time I would give a talk and read from The Forgetting Flower, solo.…