My classroom days are decades behind me, but I still miss the nerdy pleasure of heading back to school each September with new notebooks and folders, color coded by subject of course. Pretty stationery, however, feels like an acceptable substitute. A stack of blank notecards holds the same promise of a fresh start as school […]

Summer is coming to an end, and the kids are now back to school. As a working mom, you would think this would be a relief and allow the family to go back to a familiar routine. Order should return to the household. Right? Nope. In fact, it is the beginning of a month long […]

This week, my oldest son, Ford, begins seventh grade. He’s technically been in “middle school” for a year now, but this summer was the first time I saw, with startling frequency, a glimpse of the changes ahead: My first baby is stuck in that painful space between a boy and a man. As an example, […]

Every year the vegetable garden produces food for me. Some years I have enough to eat and to share — with plenty left to put up for the winter. But every year is different and this year my garden is a bit of a disappointment. Here we just finished August and I’m not able to […]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Home-grown tomatoes are NOT the besttasting ones. Not necessarily, that is. Now, I’m not advocating tossing in your trowel and doing your harvesting at the supermarket. What I am saying is that choosing the best variety is the important thing if you’re looking to grow a […]