By Beck I am cooking again after a practically summer-long sabbatical – my husband barbecued a lot and I don’t know what else we did, but I’m fairly certain that I did pretty much no cooking between June and this past week. It was too hot and I was too depressed and so my kitchen…
Author Archives: Beck
Back To School
By Beck I love this time of year – the changing leaves (well, any day now), the cooling temperatures (again, ANY day now), new pens and pencils and notebooks and bookbags and sweaters. Only one of my kids actually goes to school, but the back-to-school feeling prevails nonetheless. My oldest. I write about her a…
A Wolf In The Woods
By Beck So the other day I was casually reaching for the kitchen tap and nearly grabbed A GIGANTIC WOLF SPIDER THAT WAS LURKING ON IT. And I will immediately digress to say that wolf spiders are PERFECTLY named – they’re so hairy and lulking and frightening! Good job, spider-naming person! Anyhow. Giant spider, right…
Not My Child
By Beck Almost a year ago exactly, she was born. And that is the way with other people’s babies, who grow up in sudden startling lurches – one minute, someone is a sleepy little baby, and the next finds them shoving exuberant handfuls of birthday cake into their mouths. She was born after a hard,…
A Loom Of Her Own
By Beck The Girl has wanted a loom for several years now, despite never having actually seen a loom in person. It was one of those strange, fleeting childhood passions, we thought, and not something that was necessary for us to fulfill. Looms are too expensive and too big to be mere whims. So she…
Crybaby
By Beck If you really want to see Fate have a good chuckle at your expense, just try laughing at another parent’s predicament. WITHOUT FAIL, you will face the same predicament yourself in record time. It’s true! (sort of!) For example: a friend was fretting about her children heading off for a week with her…
Fairy Houses
By Beck It was Midsummer’s Eve yesterday and so after the thunderstorm and the earthquake – what?! – the kids ran outside and built little hasty fairy houses before they went off to bed. “I hope there isn’t another earthquake,” The Baby said, casually. “I don’t think my fairy house is very sturdy.” We’d thought…
Bears In The Forest
By Beck The Girl gets to stay up later than her siblings, being 11 and all, and she wanted to watch some tv with me last night, which sounded FINE by me – an evening walk with a friend had left me disturbingly tired. “Let’s watch “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant,” she cajoled. “That…
Muffins
By Beck The Baby (and whenever I call her that, I feel the need to add that she is five now and NOT ANYTHING LIKE A BABY) just made some muffins, which are baking away in the oven as I write. And because The Baby has food issues, they’re gluten-free and so the chances of…
Upwards
By Beck It’s been a confused couple of days, weather-wise – for much of the day, we have clear blue skies and rather intense heat (a balmy 24c!) and then all at once the sky turns dark ominous grey and we’re in the middle of a thunderstorm. The rains don’t help, though -the bush to…