How Clean Should a Home Really Be?

Thoughts I have while cleaning.

I was just vacuuming the kitchen, you know, digging into the trim along the floor underneath the sink, a place that never seems to get totally clean. I got all the vaccumable stuff, but still. My inner goldbrick spoke up, “Aw, that’s good enough. Consider the dirt a sign of life ongoing.” Then I thought back to how perfectly immaculate my childhood house was. What did that signify? I also thought of how some of my mom’s ashes wound up in a vacuum cleaner. more…

Grade-School Valentine’s Day Deserves a Stake Through the Heart

The pointless torture of little kids on Valentine’s Day.

Every year about this time, it’s the same thing for parents of young grade-school students: Time to buy a box of cheap Valentine’s Day cards for everyone in their child’s class so that no child gets more, or less, declarations of love than anyone else. more…

Sleeping with the Light On

Oh, Mini-Me, don’t be scared.

I go to bed long after everyone else, and the last thing I make sure to do is look in on my girls. Last night — this morning, really — I found SD sleeping with the light on. It’s confusing, jarring even, to be standing over her in a brightly lit room this way. But I understand. more…

dadinautumn