Monday, July 6th Dear Sebastian, It’s that time of year, when you are up at the surface of my heart. A week ago, at book club, someone asked about you. We were discussing Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (my pick, because I love her), a story in which the main character experienced baby loss as…
Tag: family
Late New Year’s Post – Highlights of 2025
As always, my New Year’s post is… not punctual. I got a bit stuck this February, having way too much packed awkwardly into my mind to pry any of it out. Also, between the now-usual heartbreaking state of the world, reminders of how broken and broke the education system I work in is, some extra…
Grateful for a bunch of little things
Happy new year, lovelies! Normally (as many of you know), my first post of a new year is a questionnaire-style review of the previous year. That post takes a long time to get to, though, because it involves soliciting feedback from my family, who are a bunch of procrastinators (who nevertheless insist that they want…
Feeling grateful for rivers, quilters, friends, and family
There is someone out there I will never be able to thank for the gift they gave us. I don’t know who it is, but I picture a retired lady with kindly eyes and a sewing room stuffed to the gills. That person made a tiny quilt for a tiny person they didn’t know, belonging…
Maybe a little bit of birthday celebration
Dear Sebastian, A week ago Sunday, as I was making black raspberry cobbler for your 12th birthday, I realized something. I thought back to the day of your birth, and your first and second birthdays, and how impossible it felt to “celebrate” the day back then. I could not conceive of making cake or blowing up…
To my firstborn son, on your graduation from childhood (i.e. Grade 8)
Dear E, You’ve made it! Today (right now, in fact) you are celebrating your Grade 8 graduation, and I really want to say a few words. I write to you in my head with every birthday and milestone, but there are not very many birthday blog posts from recent years. (Sigh… you know how June…
The New Year Questionnaire – a look back at 2022
Here’s the New Year Questionnaire! As per tradition, not even close to “on time.” (Though not as late as some New Years.) Also – shorter than it used to be, and adjusted this year to be a bit more contemplative, inspired by my amazing cousin-sister Quinn at The Retreat Space. AND… guess what, I’ve been…
How can I be writing about this again?
It has been almost a decade since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Is that enough time between senseless mass killings of American children? How can we be here again? Being a human, and especially an elementary school teacher, I grieve every time this happens, anywhere. I’m sure these Grade 4 students in Texas are…
Dilovely’s New Year Questionnaire for 2021
Here we are! The fresh (2-week-old) new year of 2022! Off to a roaring start with Omicron. A friend of mine on Facebook was reflecting this New Year’s that at the end of 2020, we were so happy to see the year finish, full of hope for an end to the pandemic. Then, 2021 crushed…
Celebrating my 9-year-old on International Day of the Girl
Dear AB, Today is International Day of the Girl Child, and it seems a great opportunity to talk about you, my Rainbow baby, seeing as your birthday was less than two weeks ago. Your birthday will henceforth always fall on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation (though you have been wearing an orange shirt…