Weekend en famille, and we’re all a little tired of each other. Yesterday we went apple picking at Lookout Farm. Didn’t realize they were having some huge festival with bouncy castles and enormous crowds. Whit made it about an hour before completely melting down; we still don’t know exactly what was going on but it was bad. He screamed and screamed and I finally had to take him to the car on the dinky little train (enduring evil looks from fellow train-riders not enjoying the soundtrack) while Gracie and Matt did some more picking. Last night we had dinner at the Biottis house with the Shachoys, which was lovely – seven children running wild. Jon and Leslie are always such marvelous hosts . Today was a nice walk at Fresh Pond including a long visit with Francie Karlen and her three children.



Chaos tonight at Full Moon. My Lord. May be our last night there. The big kids were crazy and LOUD and Whit kept running for the door … at one point literally one of the dishwashers ran and scooped him up and brought him back to me. Lovely.

Here I am!

Well, here I am! Friday afternoon, thinking I should join Abby on the blog bandwagon. Need to figure out how to post pictures.
Looking at a family weekend … perhaps some apple picking tomorrow, dinner with the Biottis and Shachoys tomorrow night (en famille), Sunday who knows. Kicking off the weekend in 3 hours with Elizabeth & James & Benjamin and Christina & Charlie & Will and at least one or two bottles of wine, which will be good … Friday night at Full Moon!

Books & Links


I LOVE TO READ and it’s the thing I spend most of my free time doing. Here are some of my favorite blogs and the books I recently and am currently reading.

BLOGS I LOVE

READING LIST

Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout)
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (Anne Lamott)
The Embers (Hyatt Bass)
Time of my Life (Allison Winn Scotch)
After You (Julie Buxbaum)
World Made By Hand (James Howard Kunstler)
Divisadero (Ondaatje)
How I Became a Famous
Novelist (Steve Hely)
The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway)
Perfect Life (Jessica Shattuck)
Home Game (Michael Lewis)
The Crowning Glory of Calla
Lily Ponder (Rebecca Wells)
Bad Mother (Ayelet Waldman)
Free Range Kids (Lenore Skenazy)
Changing Planes (Ursula Leguin)
Anathem (Neil Stephenson)
Healthy Child Healthy World (Christopher Gavignan)
Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
Bel Canto (Anne Patchett)
Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson)
Better (Atul Gawande)
The Concrete Blonde (Michael Connelly)
Comfort (Ann Hood)
Here if You Need Me (Kate Braestrup)
The Audacity of Hope (Obama)
The Senator’s Wife (Miller)
Bel Canto (Anne Patchett)
Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson)

About Me


I AM A WOMAN, daughter, mother, sister, wife, friend, and writer. I am also a runner, a sometime yogi, a disillusioned MBA, a reformed nailbiter, and a proud natural redhead. I struggle mightily to find a coherent sense of self in all of these splintered identities.

I am strong (I delivered both of my children without any pain medication) and I am weak (I get really sick at least 3 or 4 times a year). I cry every day, possibly more than I laugh (and I want to change this ratio).

I grew up moving around every five years, which left me with a contradictory combination of restlessness and a deep craving for stability. I’ve been to most of the countries in Europe and only about ten states. Home, though, has always been where I live now. This is where I was born and this is where my family always returned. It is where I live now with my husband and two children.

I am troubled by my inability to live more presently, which makes me keenly sad about the passage of time. The way that my children mark the inexorable movement of time is something I find very difficult; this bittersweetness is sometimes almost unbearable This blog was started in part to record some of both that struggle and the moments of incandescent joy or laughter that I don’t want to forget.