More Than Four Sides

Category: Family & Friends

  • “The love of a dead person counted, too.”

    What would your answer be if someone said to you, in all earnestness: “I really wanted only to know how you are faring?  Whether you are happy? Whether you are loved.  The rest is immaterial.” What would your answer be? At various times, I can claim to feel loved.  More often, though, I feel unloved.…

  • Well May the World Go…

    Well may the world go, The world go, the world go, Well may the world go, When I’m far away. And, now, Pete Seeger is far away.  Or maybe not. So much has been written and said of this great singer and activist – I can hardly add much to the beautiful tributes of others.…

  • ‘Competitive Mindfulness’

    I’m smiling, as I read this article posted on FaceBook by a friend: Against ‘Competitive Mindfulness’ | Child Mind Institute. I reminds me of my first yoga teacher, who introduced me to Iyengar yoga when I was in college at University of California Santa Cruz (yes, the Banana Slug school, but we didn’t have the…

  • Individual attention

    The anniversary of our “gotcha day” for our boys is just around the corner, and it’s a great time for reflection on parenting. My first time around, as a mom, with one easy-going daughter, I never had to worry about dividing my time between siblings – all my parenting time was hers. Now, with two…

  • Spirit Week

    This week at S’s school is spirit week. Every day the kids are supposed to wear specific clothes, like: pajama day, wear a certain color and Tuesday was fancy clothes day. I loathed spirit week when I was growing up – and i don’t remember having such activities in elementary school. The most we had…

  • Dining with the enemy

    There are those times when we have to go out to a meal, usually at a restaurant, or sometimes in the context of a party, when we know that we will have to spend substantial time with people that we would never choose to have as our personal friends.  Examples: evenings out with the spouse’s…

  • Mr Anxiety

    I’m sitting in a small room, watching my anxious 5-yr-old mixing up the batter for Chechebsa, a traditional Ethiopian pancake eaten for breakfast. Yesterday, Dad took it screaming child to participate in his age group’s (the Rabbits) activities, and he got stuck all morning, firmly glued by the hand to our son. This morning, it’s…

  • Car conversations

    We were on our way to the bus pickup point this morning for the boys summer camp. The drive takes about 20 minutes. J: “Is turkey bacon kosher?” Me: “Yes, if the turkey was killed in a kosher manner.” J: “I want to get a peacock and kill it and eat it. Is peacock kosher?”…

  • Exhausted by first week of camp, restored by a low-key weekend

    Last week, the boys were at Camp Shoresh – a camp located about 45 minutes from our home, in the middle of farmland and rolling hills in Maryland. S went there last year, and loved it, and this year, J joined him, rather than staying at the BK-ECC for their summer program. We love the…

  • Fun in the pool

    When we moved into our current home, the only downside we saw was the presence of a pool. This particularly the case of my dear husband, who investigated the option of filling it in. When he found out that it would cost several thousand dollars to get rid of it, we decided to get comfortable…