Category: domestic bliss
-
The kids left the screen door open. Something flew by my head on the porch. The streetlights came on, the corner bar clinked. Summer night in Shorewood. I’m cozy in bed, pillowed in and hydrated, when I hear a commotion downstairs. Paul was dodging a bat that was flying in fast circles…
-
Thyroid: Let’s be really, really cold on a sunny day. Hysterectomy and estrogen suppressants: Oooh let’s do a random hot flash right now! Liver disease: No mimosas for you! Lymphedema: If I swell just right she’ll never get out of…
-
Back in November, I developed Superior Vena Cava Syndrome, (SVCS) caused by the chemo port that was implanted only a few weeks prior. SVCS is deep vein thrombosis of the superior cava vein, the big fat juicy vein that drains from your head, neck, arms and upper chest into your…
-
I am missing almost all my little spoons. Twenty four years, two continents, three cross-country moves, countless apartments. And now? Gone. Where? WHERE DO THEY GO Why does every daycare, every camp, every school, every aftercare have to have their own version of the same forms? WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FORMS Why isn’t there…
-
These things I know about The Holidays: He will say “What did we get the kids?” You will buy too much and yet not get something “right”. There will either be no snow or all the snow. The cat/dog/hamster will barf/poop/die. You…
-
Today was a Bed Day. For every three to four Doing Stuff days, I have one Bed Day. I’m working hard to suppress the bad feeling about staying in bed all day (thanks a lot capitalism, Lutheranism and midwestern mythology). I’m working on accepting my “new…
-
When I got home from the hospital, the first thing I did was take a long shower and do all the things—shampoo, fancy body wash, every lotion I own. The kids, who didn’t know I was out of the hospital, came home about an hour later and ran right up…
-
Cancer blew up my life, sepsis has blown up our summer. We’ve had to cancel two of our little summer adventure trips, reschedule our beloved Shaker Village trip, and I missed my painting retreat on Madeline Island. The Madeline Island art school was kind enough to let…
-
The arrival of midwestern Spring has been slow and temperamental. The kids have been restless and temperamental. I ask them to play outside for at least a few minutes every night after dinner. I have visions of their youth spent playing in a bucolic garden, on…
-
I’ve been ruminating on being 50, dying younger then I planned, and what I want to be when I grow up. It’s been a challenging few months; the recent down slope of this Cancer roller coaster has been a long, slow descent this winter and now into spring. I’m working on…
girl at large 