I took the boys out around lunchtime yesterday to shop for their dad. We do this for each other and it’s cute and getting more touching. When they were little they used to pick things that were obviously for THEM and not US – “Dad wants a Batman toy!” “Mom wants this giant cuddly stuffy!” Now that they are nearly men, they are much more thoughtful and thorough. They chose a Willie Nelson album from the record store, a shirt they thought he’d like (and they guessed well, in my opinion, as the Prof is quite picky about his shirts), a set of etched tumblers from a local jewelry store.…

It is 2024! I will do my annual check in posts, but also wanted to note that Gretchen Rubin (my favorite happiness expert) has suggested that we all try to write 24 in 24 – that is, write 24 minutes (OR, if it’s a hectic day, 2-4 minutes) every day in 2024. Last year we went outside 23 minutes every day of 2023, and she’s done other challenges in prior years. I’m aiming to do this 24 minutes of writing in 24, and I’m aiming to do it here for the most part. A few bullets:

I am back in my former home of North Carolina for a visit and to play my old band’s reunion show. The show was scheduled for my seventeenth wedding anniversary, the same night as Jack’s first homecoming dance and the Professor’s first camping trip with the Scout troop he leads (Craig’s age). The logistics of this were not easy, but we worked it all out. I had the teen across the street go pick up the corsage I ordered from the florist and Jack’s date(‘s parents) picked him up and dropped him off. As he was getting ready he needed help so we facetimed so I could help him tie…

Some dreams I’ve had lately (I promise to keep this high level so it’s not brutally boring): First – I dream a lot about the house I lived in during middle and early high school. I barely remember the California house we moved to before my junior year of high school, but our house in Virginia Beach that we were in for my middle school years is burned into my brain for all time. I remember even that a girl my age named Missy Cheliras lived in the house behind us. (I once looked her up – learned she had gone to seminary, but died young. Cancer. She was so…

The day we thought would never come is here at last – the morning we first light our gas fireplace, because it is reasonably chilly outside. October 8 and it is at last 60 degrees at sunrise. (It was 77 at sunrise yesterday). Jasper is sacked out in front of the fire, and Twyla (we’ve decided to name her Twyla, after the Schitt’s Creek character) is snoozling on the couch at my knees. She sleeps at night snuggled between my shoulder blades on the bed, or nose in my armpit, like a newborn baby. She is a newborn baby, really, and while I am not keen to continue this co-sleeping…