• Family

    Things some kids have said to Alexa today

    Alexa, tell us a joke Alexa, do you hate us? Alexa, announce “Alexa, announce” Alexa, you’re not my bestie Alexa, does the government listen in to our conversations? Alexa, tell Jeff Bezos he sucks Alexa, what’s Jeff Bezos’s favorite song? (the answer was Don’t Stop Believing) Alexa, how do you hide a body? Alexa, are you evil? Alexa, tell us…

  • Uncategorized

    Rest is the best

    A few days ago, my friend Ona over at On A Thought wrote about Spending Time. I can’t stop thinking about it. Right when I read it, I went in to comment, thinking something like “Amen!” or “Preach!” But as so often happens to me, once I started writing, I started having things to say. Lots of things to say,…

  • Uncategorized

    Talking About the Weather

    I suspect that spending time with me, these days, is a bit like walking through a land with that kind of weather that changes in a heartbeat. I don’t mean that it just changes the way it does everywhere, like how everywhere I have lived, people say “Don’t like the weather in ____? Wait five minutes!” [Spoiler alert: they say…

  • Family - Uncategorized

    Homeplace

    Things my house and I have in common: mismatched colorful cozy welcoming needs some work some projects are perpetually unfinished leaks here and there filled with memories shared with my best people blends old and new lots of blue full of found items: ground scores, curb scores, thrifts, and gifts outer doors don’t always close or open right difficult to…

  • Teaching - Writing

    Any writers here?

    “Are there any writers here?” Being a specialist in teaching writing, writer identity, emotions and writing, and writing research, I ask that question a LOT when I work with any group of people. I have asked it of college freshmen, kindergarteners, and students at every stage in between. I have asked it of beginning teachers and classroom veterans, of doctoral…

  • Uncategorized - Writing

    Equinox!

    On an equinox, day and night are of equal length; the dark time and light time balance each other. This Sunday was the Vernal Equinox, but it also was a sort of personal equinox for me. It is a time of turning over to a new season, on levels literal, emotional, metaphorical. There really have been no appropriate bins of…

  • Uncategorized

    Vacation Math

    Seven crossword puzzles in bed Four airplanes Two car rides Five helpings of guacamole Three kinds of ceviche Two sea turtles munching grass Two surprise rainstorms Five fruit smoothies Four omelets One Mayan city One underground lake Seven books One million percent better

  • Uncategorized

    Mornings working from home

    Some mornings I need a little more quiet time than most mornings have. Time for coffee, for sitting in my bathrobe looking at nothing, just sitting. Time for the dreams to fade and the body to loosen. Time for prayer or notebook writing or a shower or to just take a minute, or to dress or take pills or make…