Things I Love

 Have Kids, Will Travel – this post by Annie Flavin is full of beautiful photographs and deep truths.  She has younger children than I do, but has the same approach to life: choosing the top right quadrant, where both adventure and exhaustion live.  Yes, yes, and yes.  What did we do before them?  I ask myself that all the time.

This is 35 – As you know I love “this is X” posts, and some of my favorite writing has been structured that way.  This post by Dina Relles on Commonplace brought tears to my eyes. “Thirty-five is facing the frailty of family and friends, coming to terms with the truism that every day on this earth is a gift.  Thirty-five is not the end of the story.”

Tinker Crate – I have mentioned this subscription service before, but Whit continues to passionately adore his monthly boxes that contain a science-related project and I wanted to reiterate how much we love it.  Just this morning I found him in his room working on a project.  There are other services for younger kids or those interested in other things.  Highly recommended.  A great gift idea!

I’ve been reading a lot of very light novels lately, and nothing I feel merits a mention specifically here, to be honest.  For some reason, that’s what my heart seeks right now: lightness.  After publicly acknowledging that this had been a difficult first half of the year, I’m easing into the second half with optimism and as much ease as my not-very-easy personality can muster.

It’s worth noting that some of my favorite writers have books coming out this fall, which I am eagerly anticipating.  I’m specifically thinking of Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert and Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed.  I would give my arm for ARCs of either and am counting minutes until they are released.

I’m writing postcards and letters to camp (the children go tomorrow, and I ache already, if I’m being frank, which I always am).

What are you reading, listening to, thinking about, and anticipating these days?

I write these Things I Love posts approximately monthly.  You can find them all here.

Helen Boggess – I’ve been following Helen Boggess’s beautiful work on Instagram for a while, and find myself adoring the words she shares and the gorgeous art she creates to showcase them.  I recently asked Helen to do a custom piece for me and in so doing stumbled upon this Tumblr of her work, which is a great place to lose yourself for hours.  It’s titled with a quote I haven’t heard before and which I love” “Where I create, there I am true” (Rilke).

Parenting, Not for the Moment, but for the Long Haul – I adore this piece of Jess Lahey’s in the New York Times.  I pay so much attention to the individual moments of my ordinary life here, and holding them up to the light, see their shimmer, but I also appreciate Jess’s wise and compelling reminder that the long arc of perspective is useful too.  I love her last sentence, and the way she calmly assures me that my children will be fine.  I want to celebrate their wandering, and she helps me do that.

The Thrive Portrait Project – I found Karen Walrond’s beautiful project through Asha Dornfest (who in part inspired my post last week about how everything is changing).  Karen’s project aims to photograph women over 40 and capture what it means to them to thrive in their lives.  The photographs are mesmerizing and the words are immensely powerful.  I’m in my 40s now too, and I really resonate with the concept that these can be fruitful, passionate, blazing years.

Everything You Ever Wanted – I’ve had terrible insomnia lately (not something I love at all) and Jillian Lauren’s memoir was a wonderful companion in the lonely early morning hours.  I was fortunate to hear Jillian read at my friend Aidan‘s house last month, and this book is as marvelous as she is in person: funny, warm, wise, and down to earth at the same time.  Jillian’s story reminds us that sometimes the path doesn’t look anything like we imagined, but it still gets us exactly where we need to go.

What Do You Believe In? – This post from Nici at Dig This Chick gave me goosebumps because I read it the morning after I published a post specifically about what I believe.  I also made me cry with its truth, the way it sweepingly embraces what was, what might have been, and what is.  “I believe in feeling all the feelings. I believe in big dreams and small movements. I believe in seasons, skipping stones, skiing, strawberries, saying yes, swimming, sleep, sunrise, snuggling and swing dancing. I believe what you believe. I believe in you.”

What are you reading, thinking about, and loving lately?

I write these Things I Love posts approximately monthly.  You can find them all here.

An Open Letter to a Nursery-School Mom from a Sixth-Grader’s Mom: This piece by Catherine Newman, oh my God.  I love every word the woman writes (in fact, many years ago I shared some of her words with the not-ambiguous title of The Great Catherine Newman).  But this piece, oh.  Oh.  It gutted me.  I’ve often looked at the pre-K and K parents at school, marveled at how I was one of them moments ago, at how I looked at the parents of the Big Kids and had all the same questions.  They seemed glamorous and tired and old all at the same time.  And now I’m one of them (mostly tired and old, not so much glamorous).  Read this piece now.

Hope Floating: This raw, painful, beautiful piece by Robin Schoenthaler on Full Grown People made me weep.  I’m privileged to know Robin, and I love her work, every word of it, but this is among my favorite pieces I’ve read by her.  “Lying there laughing, I feel them like a flash flood, the raw and precious lives that led us here...”  Simply extraordinary.

The Definition of Hell for Each Myers-Briggs Personality Type: Thanks to Hilary for sending this to me.  Oh, so hilarious.

In a Mother’s Library, Bound in Spirit and in Print: Jessica sent me this marvelous piece, which I read shortly after the similarly-themed and likewise lambent A Mother’s Cookbook Shares More than Recipes (thanks, Randye Hoder).  I have my grandmother’s Silver Palate Cookbook and absolutely adore the record of her handwriting, so familiar it almost aches to read it, in the margins.  My father’s habit is to inscribe his books, in his fountain-pen script that I know as well as my own, with the date he bought them and where, in the frontispiece.  There is so much in the paper pages of books, whether cooking, novel, or nonfiction.  I love these two pieces for evoking that.

Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies: I love chocolate chip cookies.  So much that we had them at our wedding, in fact.  I bake them a lot.  I made these this past weekend and they are without question the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made.  Not exaggerating. I used a combo of regular chocolate chips and bittersweet chocolate chips.  I think the salt flakes on top are crucial. Thank you Nina Badzin for drawing my attention to this recipe.  Go, make them now!

I write these Things I Love posts approximately monthly.  You can find them all archived here.

What are you reading, thinking about, and loving lately?

Great Children’s Books Celebrating Science – We are a houseful of science- and book-lovers, and this wonderful list on Brain Pickings touches both.  It doesn’t include our current favorite, On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein, but it’s a marvelous list nonetheless.

Tweet, Memory – Many, many beautiful words have been written about my friend Lisa Boncheck Adams.  Reading the eulogies that were delivered at her funeral, which I missed because I was abroad with Grace and Whit, brought me to sobs.  But this piece in the New Yorker by Dani Shapiro is my favorite.  Not least because Dani so beautifully describes a feeling I share, which is being private despite writing personal things.  But most of all because she brings Lisa and her brave, powerful, beautiful persona so vividly to life.  Flowers, corgis, illness, Sharpies, birthday cards, fierce love, and unwavering acceptance of reality’s brutal face: that was Lisa.

Primary – I absolutely love this new company, whose mission is to offer affordable, high-quality basics for children.  I just wish that my children weren’t about to age out of it, because I love the simple designs, bright colors, and quality fabrics, as well as the price point and the company’s focus and mission.

What Would My Mom Do? – This piece made guffaw at the same time as I felt its undeniable wisdom sink in.  Yes, we’ve gone too far, our generation has.  I love what Jen says about how her mother majored in the majors and minored in the minors.  I would say the same of my mother, whose example is one I strive to emulate every day.

Thirteen Windows – Kristen’s beautiful piece on Brain, Child brought tears to my eyes.  She captures so beautifully something I’ve thought about a lot, which is the way in which childbirth is our introduction to all the ways in which parenting is out of our control.  I love Kristen’s writing, and this piece is one of my very favorites.

Tinker Crate – I subscribed to Tinker Crate for Whit for his birthday and he’s loving the projects.  I’ve also sent Kiwi Crate subscriptions to other kids in my life.  I love this company and in particular the ways in which Tinker Crate supports children who like to build and make things.  Let’s hear it for the next generation of makers!

What are you reading, listening to, thinking about, and loving lately?

I write these Things I Love posts approximately monthly.  You can find them all here.

On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein– I love picture books.  I love books for kids about science.  I love books that make me cry.  This beautiful book, by Jennifer Berne, is all three.  Whit gave this his seal of approval, and it’s now my go-to book for gifting.  Watch out godson and other friends with sons in this age range.  This book is inspiring, reassuring, and gorgeous all at once.  I love it.

Bringing a Daughter Back From the Brink With Poems – I adore this story of a mother putting poems in her troubled daughter’s shoes.  This strikes me as brilliant parenting and I love the confirmation that poems can change live and touch into the deepest reaches of our souls.  Reminds me of the marvelous Williams line that “it is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.”

It Goes So Fast (Not a Parenting Essay) – Every word of my friend Allison Slater Tate‘s essay resonated with me.  I read it with tears streaming down my face.  We talk a lot about how fast it’s flown by with regards to the years with our children but that’s also true when it comes to myself.  I’m so thankful that Allison put this into words.  I’m grateful every day to be going through life in lock step with her (we were both a month apart, our first children were born months apart, etc).

Brightly – I am smitten with (and reading every page of) this marvelous site whose goal is to help parents develop lifelong readers.  There are articles about series and specific titles, more general reflections on reading as a parent and for children, and thoughtful content broken down by age of child.  This site is an inspiration.  (Thanks to my friend Stacey Loscalzo who pointed me to Brightly)

Currently in my head: Delicate by Damien Rice, FourFiveSeconds by Kanye West, Rihanna, and Paul McCartney, and I’m Alive by Kenny Chesney.

I write these Things I Love posts approximately monthly.  You can see all the others here.

What’s on your mind, your bedside table, your tablet, and your ipod?