God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; Help me accept our schedule is about to be nuts. Summer is family interdependence, melting into each other, and learning life together. Next up: jarring tardy bells, horrible flash cards, afternoon practices, and late nights of fractions. These will blow our family cocoon to smithereens. Give me the...Continue Reading
Our kids are back from a week of camp. Right before it was time to send them, I almost chickened out. But I kept thinking of this bit of wisdom,”Parenting is about preparing your child for the road, not about preparing the road for your child.” I’m good at road construction for my kids. I always believe they need...Continue Reading
Our family is back from almost two weeks of vacation. We have done justice to the Family Road Trip. We have travelled thousands of miles in our dirty minivan. We have peed in hot gas station bathrooms and eaten terrible breakfasts at hole-in-the-wall cafes. Yesterday we drove 900 miles in a little over 13 hours. Instead of stopping for...Continue Reading
Stress is not a choice. Just getting out of bed is stress. Getting out of your pajamas is definite stress and let’s not even talk about checking your email. Then there are the really epic stressors, like finding your life’s purpose. Or raising kids without being both aloof and clingy. Or trying to make it through the day without eating an entire tub...Continue Reading
Here’s what happened when our family unplugged from our busy schedules. Spoiler alert: in just a couple weeks, our usually efficient household became a frat house of sloth. It all started in May, when the busy month fried our family. We gritted our teeth through every ballet recital, every end-of-the-year party, and every research paper, holding on to the glittering promise of...Continue Reading
Last week I wrote about brothers and sisters and that I worry how our kids’ relationships will turn out. Is their constant fighting a sign of what’s to come? Is there any way their friendships can stay intact through their childhood hurts and tough adolescence? Honestly, the odds of our kids staying close seems dismal. Most adults I know struggle to get along with...Continue Reading
Summer feels like suddenly going camping with all your co-workers. When there’s not much on the schedule, everyone gets real. The kids become each other’s best (and worst) playmates. These brothers and sisters suddenly have all day for sword fighting, baking, giggling, Lego-building, and daydreaming together. Like other moms, I watch my kids playing and fighting and wonder what this...Continue Reading
Thanks to the constant rain this month, Texas is flooded. The bayous are swollen, the streets are impassable, and yards are like swimming pools. This kind of weather is so fitting for May, a month also flooded with commitments, parties, emotions, and stimulants. We introverts can handle the a light, steady rain of stimuli. We can smile...Continue Reading
We’re in the process of booking Best of Times for the summer. Our renters are mostly families who live in Texas suburbs and come to the coast for vacation. Back home, their planned-community homes are brick, and big, and beautiful. Six-foot privacy fences separate yards, and these yards are filled with trampolines, swimming pools, and swing sets. Every day landscaping crews...Continue Reading
When we planned a trip to Yosemite, we weren’t really thinking about Thoreau or his famous quote about going to the woods to live intentionally. We were thinking about seeing our friends, the Cavalleris. We were excited to show our kids another part of the country, a part with forests instead of swamps and mountains instead of...Continue Reading
