Category Archives: Family matters

In which we discuss matters of the family.

blessings, Family matters

Seventeen

The past 17 years have gone by so quickly. Yesterday you were a newborn gripping my finger with your whole hand, and yesterday you were taking your first steps in our empty rooms on as we packed up to leave Missouri, and yesterday you were trying your first solid food and watching “Ferris Bueller” for the fiftieth time and singing along to “Jelly Man Kelly” and getting your black belt and making me laugh and cry with your acting and heading off to public school for the first time. And today you are 17, and soon it will be tomorrow, and before I can blink twice it’ll be next year and you’ll be off to college.

And Poppy, I am so, so proud of you. 

It has been and always will be one of the greatest privileges of my life to be your mom. What a gift you are to me.

You are everything I hoped you’d be from the first moment I looked into your wide blue eyes. You are kind. You have a tender heart. You love ferociously. You are responsible and trustworthy. You are smart, and you are wise, and you are persistent.

Now the whole world is waiting for you, my sweet potato. I can’t wait to see what you make of it.

I love you forever, kiddo.

blessings, Family matters

A letter for Poppy on her 15th birthday

Dear Poppy,

Today you are 15.

“No I’m not,” you would tell me, if I were saying this instead of writing it. “Not yet. I wasn’t born until 3:30.”

But your birthday’s your birthday, kid, and you can’t argue with me on my internet website. Over here it’s 24 hours of celebrating Poppy. As if there were enough hours in the day to celebrate you.

That’s the kind of person you are, though. You like things to be orderly and predictable and on schedule. I think that’s one of the reasons you did so well in school last year — your freshman year of high school, and your first year in public school. I was really worried about you going into that ginormous school and only knowing one or two people, but you absolutely owned it. Made a bunch of friends and got great grades. I was so proud of you.

You grew up a lot this year. You’ve been taller than me for a while now, sure, but I can also see hints of you growing into a bona fide adult. You’re taking on more responsibilities and taking ownership of the things your dad and I ask you to do and sometimes even doing chores before you’re asked. You’re navigating new friendships and old friendships and job challenges and on top of that a whole global pandemic and all of the changes that have come with that, and you’re doing it all with bravery and grace. This year has been very, very tough, and you’ve been a wonderful partner in our family as we’ve weathered it. I’ve been so proud of you.

You are so strong. And you’re funny. And talented. You’re a great friend and a wonderful daughter, and I am so, so proud of you.

You are 15, and I love you today even more than I did 15 years ago. And that was as much as I ever thought I could’ve loved anyone. Being your mother has been such a joy and privilege, and I can’t wait to continue to watch you grow. Did I mention I’m proud of you?

Love,
Mama

Family matters

Our daily schedule, more or less

Our governor issued a stay-at-home order for the whole state effective Monday afternoon. I’m not sure why it wasn’t effective Friday afternoon. I guess you’ve got to give the virus a little more time to get around. Anyway, I don’t think it’s going to affect us all that much. We’ve been staying at home for about 10 days already, but hopefully the people who’ve been going about their normal routines will cut it out now.

Our daily routine these days looks something like this:

  • Rockford gets up about the same time he used to. He showers and gets dressed, then heads to the dining room table or the sun room to start his work day.
  • I wake up around 7:30 or 8 or 8:30 and very slowly get out of bed, shower and get dressed. There’s a lot of “slowly” in that equation.
  • Pete is generally up around 8. He plays video games until family meeting.
  • Someone waked Poppy up around 9.
  • At 9:30, we gather at the dining room table for Family Meeting. The kids look at all their school assignments for the day, and Rockford tells us what time he’ll be available for lunch.
  • The kids do their schoolwork, Rockford does his work-work, and I …
  • We come back to the dining room table for lunch sometime between noon and 1, depending on Rockford’s schedule. It’s been nice having lunch together.
  • Once the kids are done with their schoolwork for the day, they play video games or watch TV. I’d like to say they do wildly constructive things, but that would not be accurate.

    • I still haven’t given my own day any structure, really. I’m reading, doing laundry, playing Scrabble with my dad on Facebook and making food. And spending too much time on social media. Maybe I’ll try to do something about that next week.I finished Emily St. John Mandel’s new book “The Glass Hotel” this afternoon. It was fine, but I didn’t love it as much as her “Station Eleven.” I usually read it once every few years, but seeing as it’s about people living in a post-pandemic landscape I’ll probably not revisit it soon.