Author Archives: Beck

Feet

By Beck It would be really great if I could learn to enjoy that foot-in-mouth feeling that comes with saying something unintentionally really boneheaded. I feel it often enough that learning to enjoy the sinking self-loathing and embarrasment would be a big plus. Even worse, of course, is when I drop the ball with my…

The Long Winter

By Beck My youngest brother came over last night and we watched a really, really funny and rather reprehensible movie (okay, it was Pineapple Express). And as I laughed and laughed, I realized how muted and subdued I’ve been for ages, how brooding and withdrawn I’ve been. Which is boring. Is there anything more boring…

The Ghost Garden

By Beck The flowers are coming back – mostly crocuses right now, which I forget about every year until April and then they take the very breath from me with their beauty which looks so breakable and yet thrives through snow and neglect. I do not garden. Occasionally I will plant SOMETHING that I think…

Flowers Everywhere

By Beck I woke up to a blizzard this morning, which was a bit disconcerting since it’s April. But a blizzard is actually not unwelcome, as strange as that might be – we hadn’t had “significant precipitation” since early December and the forest fire risk sign on the edge of town was permanently at Distressing…

April First

By Beck My 5 Minutes post today is late, late, late – and my excuse is that I totally forgot that it was Thursday and then when I DID remember (is it “remembering” when you overhear someone mention that today is Thursday? Because that’s what I did.) I wasn’t at home, and was, in fact,…

My Skinny Love

By Beck Two of my three kids are underweight, the Girl most noticeably so. She’s still so light that I can carry her around effortlessly, although I don’t because she’s going to be 11 soon. But I could. And it’s funny how much of my feelings about myself are tied into my children’s weight – two…

On Domesticity

By Beck True story – I just spent my morning cleaning my disgusting fridge. Now it is so clean that the Queen could come over and look in it for a snack without me feeling considerable shame. I would likely feel some shock, but I’d cover it, because it’s the Queen and I feel like the…

Almost Spring

By Beck Last night we went to the library at 7 p.m. and I found something disconcerting the whole way – which was, I realized, that it was still not dark out. Spring! There is that moment when you realize all at once that winter is ending and that spring is rushing noisily into sight…

Trees

By Beck Last week’s post here was a doozy. And yes, it IS sad that our children’s childhoods are so fleeting from our perspective, that our pretty children do not stay. But it is also not sad. Children grow up like young plants, taking the knees out of their jeans and sprouting up out of…

The End

By Beck I’ve started – I noticed today with a little shock of possibly amusement – started watching for mentions of families with children older than mine. My oldest will soon be eleven, and so I look for mentions of children who are 12, 13, 14, for stories of people happily parenting children who are the…