J.S. Bach had 20 children.  (I already knew that).  However, 10 of the children died as infants, preschoolers and children, and another one reached adulthood but was mentally handicapped.  That speaks of a lot of sorrow, heartbreak, and a lot of perseverance.  It makes my stomach hurt just thinking about…

National Poetry is nearly over, and I meant weeks ago to post some of my favorite sources for the poetry I read out loud to my family each night at supper.  I try to include all sorts of different kinds of poems, so I pull material from all sorts of…

It’s his job to take out the recycling every evening.  Half the time there are bits and pieces of plastic, paper and cardboard scattered randomly along the path to the recycling bin outside, little tidbits that he has dropped without realizing it because he’s intent on doing the job as…

Helicopters have been flying in my house these past few weeks.  There are several, and they add to the chaos exponentially.  They hover and crash.  Their remote control signals get mixed up.  Their short lived battery life invokes tantrums before they are recharged.  They set off the carbon monoxide detector.…

Every once in awhile my kids will mention something that they didn’t understand when they were younger.  Often the misunderstanding is the result of a subtle difference in meaning for a word, or sometimes it is because they don’t entirely understand h0w something works.  The other day I was driving…

The Banana asked “When I am I going to get my violin?” every day for three years.  Three years is a long time when you are seven.  For years I mostly  set the notion of her starting violin to the side on a shelf.  I thought she might change her…

At supper I looked over at my eldest son. The opening of his ear was smeared with sticky brown ear wax, and there were several large chunks stuck in the goo. Me:  Honey, I think we need to wash your ears. Mr. SP:  NO!  No!  Anything but that! Me:  Well,…

Today I mentioned that I should blog about something that happened in our family. YaYa rolled her eyes and looked at me across the supper table and said, “You know, your blog isn’t always the whole truth.  It’s not the whole story.  For example, you always write and make me…

On Saturday Mr. Trouble on Feet was invited to a birthday party for his good friend Olivia, who is turning four this week.  He had a wonderful time playing at her house with friends, and best of all, he even got to try out using chopsticks at lunch.  Olivia’s parents…

The big kids and Dr. Peds were at the movie theater with some of our friends.  The weather was beautiful, so I suggested to my little guy that we take a walk to the cemetery to visit the ducks and geese.  We happened to have a lot of stale and…