How does it happen, every year? Summer starts when the kids get out of school and you have this huge vista before you, all the things you’re going to accomplish, both educational and just-for-fun, and the next day comes, and the next–and suddenly it’s August already and almost back to school! How does that happen?! [...]
Archive for July, 2008
26 Jul
Moving on up
On the whole, we’ve been unimpressed with the workers from the wraparound agency we’ve had for Captain Oblivious and Little Miss this summer. Their main function is, apparently, to babysit them while they’re spending time with “normal” kids so that they don’t miss an opportunity to correct a social misstep. They do that. But we [...]
22 Jul
An Open Letter to Michael Savage
Dear Mr. Savage: I took my two children with autism and my ADD child out to dinner this evening for Kids’ Night at Ponderosa. We went in, paid our check, everyone got their food at the buffet, then we sat down, and surprisingly well-mannered, we ate. Meanwhile, all around us there was pandemonium. One family [...]
20 Jul
So Long, and thanks for all the Mice
I have an excuse for not writing, and I trust the companion piece I’ll post later tonight as a separate page, will allay the irritation some blog readers have expressed at my long delay. Primarily, the last two weeks have been spent appreciating the children–or more accurately, their absence–during their annual trek to grandmother’s house. [...]
14 Jul
Summer, we love thee
Greetings Ye Lords and Ladies, Ye gentles and Peasants, and Welcome to Ye Olde Ode to Summer! Still recovering from the Medieval Faire, as you might note. That was a delight except for the 46 minute thunderstorm right in the middle. But we met some charming people very close up, as we huddled inside the [...]
12 Jul
Butterflies and breakage
What you get out of something clearly depends on what you put into it. The children are putting many things into their visit with their grandmother, and it seems to be going well. Mostly. Of course, it wouldn’t be our children unless Captain Oblivious and Ditto Boy pulled at least one caper. Apparently, they dragged [...]
8 Jul
The Expedition
Each year when the children are gone, we steel ourselves for the ultimate evil–cleaning out the children’s rooms. Of course, they are expected each week to pick their rooms up and keep them neat! But as we have found particularly this year, they have found new sneaky and intricate ways to keep from meeting that [...]
1 Jul
Ah, brief respite!
Poet Anne Shaw says, “Fond as we are of our loved ones, there comes at times during their absence an unexplained peace.” This is undeniably true. One of the few advantages I had as a single mother for many years is that my children’s father lived 1500 miles away. (No, not because he was far [...]










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