Category: Family

  • The Price Of Gas!

    Oh! It is time to run in circles and flap our hands! Gas is going up! Food will cost more! Who could ever have predicted this??? Here is one of the places where the division between structural analysis and the personal impact becomes glaring. It has become apparent to me over the last few years…

  • Menu According to Four-Year Old

    You may have caught the quick pass on twitter/fb: My youngest child turned four today. We had a good time, low key. He got a new Wii game and spent a larger time than normal playing computer games. (Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom!) and stayed up way too late reading. In the grand tradition of…

  • Loves Books, Loves People

    Loves Books, Loves People

    Welcome to the February Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting Essentials This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared the parenting essentials that they could not live without. Please read to the end to find a list…

  • But is it Technology?

    My daughter and I were working on her social studies project last night about technologies that are important to her. She had to have 10 pictures to paste onto a piece of paper, and to be able to talk about why she picked them. She quite quickly looked around our house and recognized that pretty…

  • The Importance of Being Less Earnest

    Welcome to the January Carnival of Natural Parenting: Learning from children This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have shared the many lessons their children have taught them. Please read to the end to find a list…

  • Breast Feeding, Formula and Risk Analysis

    The choice between formula and starvation is a no-brainer. I had an inadequate milk supply. I did. Yes, I tried that. I tried that, too. With my first baby, I saw, oh… something like 17 doctors, lactation consultants, and midwives, including Dr. Jack Newman (the guru of Canadian breastfeeding). There were herbs, and pumps, and…

  • Here’s the Payoff

    Last night I was taking my 7-y.o. daughter to her first Taekwondo class, and my 11-y.o son asked to come along for the ride. In the car on the way the conversation turned to why she wanted to take it in the first place. “Well,” she said, “Christopher likes it. And I like a lot…

  • The Chicken Rodeo

    The chickens got out about 15 minutes ago, as they do every few days. When one has livestock AND a garden, this is an urgent situation. Last fall they skeletonized two rows of chard the week that they were ready for the market. So, I dashed out the door and met my son, sticks in…

  • The Dance of Balance

    Welcome to the October Carnival of Natural Parenting: Staying Centered, Finding Balance This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared how they stay centered and find balance. Please read to the end to find a list…

  • My Feminism Includes Foucault

    Or, Why My Blog Will Never Make Money My story may be so common as to be trite. There’s nothing special about “Intelligent young woman scuppers academic career to support husband and children”. Oh, what the hey, let’s throw a “promising” in there for good measure. You can choose where. I like to think of…

  • Birthdays are a-comin’ in

    Loud sing cuckoo? Eleven years ago this evening, I was hanging out in a hospital room waiting for this labour thing to get going already. It did, I became a mom as a result, and tomorrow we get to celebrate my son’s continued trip around the planet. All awesome. But for me, a birthday is…

  • Frugal by Habit

    I got a really sweet love seat from Freecycle the other day, so I now have a nice looking sunroom for the bargain price of… oh, $6 of gas to run to town for the couch. Everything else was already in the room, but this was the key piece of furniture necessary to ‘anchor’ the…