By late March, the buds start to open, revealing delicate pink and white petals. We hop in the van and drive toward Show Kinen Park, stopping on the way to pick up a conbini lunch of fried chicken, nigiri, and egg salad sandwiches. We walk familiar paths to a grassy field surrounded by trees heavy with blossoms–an ideal spot for hanami. Hanami means “flower viewing” … Continue reading Hanami
The constellation Orion. Latte art. The Classics you never read. Salt Cookie ice cream from Blue Seal. The soft dough of toddler feet in your hands. Speaking of dough: warm, homemade cinnamon rolls covered in gooey icing. Text threads with college friends. Donut shops you haven’t discovered yet. Dinner table shenanigans. Glowing faces with puckered lips, hovered over birthday cakes. Birthday cakes. Wine tasting in Argentina. Double decker bus rides in London. I hear Alaska is amazing this time of year. Continue reading Reasons to Live through the Apocalypse
If you give a mom leftover birthday cake, she’ll want a glass of milk to go with it. When she opens the cupboard to get a glass, she’ll realize she forgot to run the dishwasher. After she starts the dishwasher, she’ll add dishwasher detergent to the grocery list. Which reminds her–She’s supposed to pick up her grocery order this morning.⠀⠀⠀ Continue reading If You Give a Mom Leftover Birthday Cake
My reading goal for 2024 was 40 books, and I finished 39 books. Below is a list of everything I read this year with a short review and link to my bookshop.org affiliate shop. I post reviews as I read over on instagram, so follow me there for updates throughout the year. Books are listed by genre and in the order I read them. *denotes a favorite book of the … Continue reading 2024 Reads
Do you believe in magic?The kind that conjures colorful blooms from bulbs buried in the cold ground?Or, poof! delivers a snow day right to your front door?Do you believe in magic?The kind that transforms a power outage into a candlelight dinner and cozy evening by the fire?Or hides you in the branches of evergreens, rows of would-be Christmas trees suddenly a fantasy forest?Do you believe … Continue reading Do you believe in magic?
Joy feels elusive lately. But I spy bloomsOn the cactus, just in time for Thanksgiving.Yes, Just in time to mendOur aching hearts, Yearning for light on these dim late-autumn days. Joy says,Open up, unfold, hold your head high.You only lose when you give in to the darkness. Looking for more words about books, motherhood, life as a geriatric millennial, and finding beauty in sacred/ordinary things? Subscribe to … Continue reading JOY
There’s a guy in the next town overwho fills his lawn with death:40-foot skeletons, fake gravestones,a grim reaper wielding a scythe(it’s a bit much).But when I turn away, I see the house across the street:purple mums on the front porch,Welcome wreath on the door,and, flapping in the sunshine,stars and stripes, sandwiched between two Confederate flags.I am not afraid of ghosts; it’s the living who haunt me. Looking for … Continue reading Haunted House
“Are you still writing?” Several friends have asked me this question over the last couple of months. One noticed my blog hasn’t been updated in a while. Another told me she missed my newsletter in her inbox. The answer? Yes, I’m still writing–Journal entries documenting last days of school and first days of camp, bike rides, trips up north, and evening baseball games.Birthday cards for … Continue reading Still Writing
1. BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE for convincingly delivering the line, “I’m sorry, but we don’t have the right batteries for that toy.” 2. BEST ART DIRECTION for supervision of toddler Play-Doh sessions without intervening as all the colors are mashed into a single blob. 3. BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG) for the riveting potty training hit You Gotta Push, Push, Push Your Pee Pee … Continue reading Still waiting on my Academy Award nominations for…
Thank you, Lord, for the ache in my neckwhich pops up now and thenafter a night of restlike a broken jack-in-the-boxthat’s missed its cue.That is, thank you for the painand how its presenceilluminates its absenceelsewhere. I give thanks for this brainwhich used to fetch me such good marks in school (the best in the class, notthat you asked). That is, thank you for the humilityI wear like a … Continue reading A Prayer of Thanks for an Aging Body
Melissa Kutsche 