Ages + Stages

My kids suck at unstructured, inside play. They do this brand of play that is exactly what siblings have been doing since the dawn of time. It's called pick pick pick, poke poke poke, tickle, scream, repeat. I think...

Irony can be a cruel knife. As I sit to write this post on parenting failures, I am still seething from the bajillion, and mostly minor injustices that my kids inflicted upon me tonight as I parent without my...

The Struggle From the first moment I held my son, I felt I had always known him, as though we fit together seamlessly. But lately, I struggle with him. He is so full of zest, such high energy, always go go...

Can you imagine your child getting as excited about reading as a Ducks or Beavers fan gets about the Civil War football game? Believe it or not, students all over Oregon are motivated to this level of excitement through the annual...

When I was a kid, I tried a lot of activities. I was an enthusiastic child! Skiing, skating, tennis, gymnastics, community theater, Brownies, trumpet, French horn… I stuck with some of them. But a lot of the time I...

School starts this week. I have a second grader and a full-day kindergartener in two different schools with one homeschooled preschooler still at home. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for nearly eight years, and I'm now adjusting to the change...

Welp. Here we are. We knew this day would come, but it's finally here. End of the weirdest school year EVER. I call it the Frankenstein's monster of education, but others call it things like "hybrid." Whatever it is,...

I never had any intention of being a marching band mom. And I certainly had no idea what it would entail once I became one. Unbelievably long days at competitions, freezing nights at football games, and nearly non-stop fundraising...

The long rains and short days have set in, and I’ve settled in for winter hibernation. Well, I guess it’s not exactly hibernation, but I’m definitely spending more time inside than I do doing the warmer, drier months here...

Like most people, I don't enjoy confrontation. So when my son came home from school with an issue that I felt I needed to address directly with his teacher, I wanted to be strategic with my approach to ensure a positive...