Beach Update 1
A lazy morning here on the island, so I’ll share a few details of our trip so far to keep me from having to write 5000 words about it when we get home. Of course, I may end up writing more than that this way, but that’s your gain! Ok, the drives down were uneventful. Sure, everyone was cranky by…
On The Road Again
We are off. To Florida. Again. I know. We are spoiled rotten, and our daughters are going to grow up to be contemptuous brats that complain because they’ve been pamered their entire lives. I mean, who goes to Florida twice in two months? It was an unexpected combination of factors that has us well on the way to Captiva Island…
Il Papa
Those Catholics know how to do timing. I was sitting in the parking lot at St. P’s Wednesday, waiting for dismissal, when suddenly the skies opened up and what had been light flurries turned into thick, white flakes that cut visibility and quickly covered windshields. It only lasted a minute or so, but as those big flakes fell, I couldn’t…
Parenting Notebook
Sunday I was finishing up my story on the state swimming meet at my desk. Around the corner, I heard C. reading a book to S.. It didn’t register at first, but soon I stopped writing and paused to listen closer. C. wasn’t slowly picking out sight words or reading some book for early readers that mixes pictures and words.…
Weekend Notes
Some various and sundry notes about the weekend past. I covered the boys high school state championship this weekend. As always, it was something else. The event itself is kind of tedious, especially when I only had one swimmer, who was in the finals of two events, to write about. Watching the crowd is the best. I believe I’ve written…
A Little Privacy Please
It is winter, which means we spend a lot of time in our basement where it is warmer and less drafty than our family room. I, especially, tend to head down there in the evenings to watch TV, read, and relax after the girls have gone to bed. Recently M. let me know she was keeping tabs on me. “Dad, I…
Party Notes
Book-ending our vacation were L.’s first two birthday parties that were her own. She’d been to several parties over the years, but always because she was the third sister, not because it was the party of someone her age. So she was awfully excited about these two gatherings. It was funny to watch her. As one of the two or…
Down With Disney
We haven’t taken a ton of family vacations over the years. But when we have we’ve always been fortunate to have safe travels and good times at our destination. Our luck held up once again and we had a fantastic time last week on our first (and still expected to be last) trip to Disney World. I’ll do my best…
When Long Held Beliefs Are Cast Aside
There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to let it rip: we’re going to Disney World tomorrow. I didn’t go when I was a kid. My parents were never in position to afford it when I was little. And I wasn’t ever into anything Disney. In fact, the contrarian streak in my personality could probably be…
Back To Normal
We’re back at it. M. and C. returned to school today and L. will head back tomorrow.1 It was a pretty good break. I was worried that things would spiral out of control last week, when S. was back at work. The girls were cuh-ray-zee in the first couple days after Christmas and I wondered how they were going to…