4 Rochester

An except from our dinner conversation tonight: Duncan: I’ve got a job to do! Daddy: What’s your job, buddy? Duncan: My job is to cut paper. Mummy: Oh, is Berry’s job to color on paper? Duncan: Yes. (This seems about right to me. After all, isn’t what each of us in the family...

The kids have been making us a little crazy lately, so we decided to try doing something new today. We went to visit the Cumming Nature Center in Honeoye Falls. Our plan was several-fold: It’s an hour drive away — farther than we’d usually go for a hike in the woods, but this ate up...

At playdates this summer, a couple of my Mommy friends have talked about their church - book club meetings, Women’s retreats, that kind of thing. I miss going to church. Mostly I miss the fellowship, the healing that takes place, the communing with Spirit / God / Infinite Intelligence / the divine...

It’s not easy to find time to tend the garden with two little ones. Or do any singular activity, for that matter. They like to be involved. Our backyard, tiny as it is, is now strewn with kids toys. The turtle sand box, basketball hoop, water table, little slide and see-saw. I love it, honestly...

I had so much fun at Duncan’s birthday party that - as exhausted as I was - I had a hard time falling asleep last night. This morning, even though Kevin has Berry downstairs and Duncan is still sleeping, I can’t get back to sleep for thinking about it. All considered, everything went well...

So, my 45th year is over. I had a sense of being at a turning point when I started this blog, and while I can say I’ve rounded the corner on this particular turn, I’m not quite back onto the straight road. The growing independence of DD and DS has been one major cause for this turning point. I’m still...

For those who watch birds avidly, FOY stands for First-of-Year. My first Great Blue Heron of the year, seen on a bike ride on the Erie Canal, near Lock 33. Every Spring, we go out to a special spot in the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. If you go at the right time, you'll hear a chorus of frogs...

(Cross-posted at RocBike ). After a powerful Earth Day sermon that echoed many of the themes in Michael Pollan's recent call to each individual to do something about climate change, and included a mention of the Rochester Chicken Club (of which I am a proud member--more on that topic to come), I...

I must like this...that feeling of preparing the soil, nourishing it with garbage that turns into luscious, nutrient-filled food for life...planting my little seeds, lots of them, which other creatures try to dig up and root out...watching the many seedlings come to life regardless...carefully plucking...

I’ve been swamped with work lately. I’m not complaining. Although I don’t want to be doing it on a Saturday afternoon. The kids are great. Duncan got in a super pre-school (super education and super expensive). So lots of work couldn’t come at a better time. Looks like we’ll...