home
-
My then-shaggy boys in the Mojave desert where I grew up, December 2014 Sometimes I fear that I'm doing my kids' childhood all wrong. Not enough forts, for instance. When I was a kid, we had a corner of the living room devoted frequently to forts. There was a living and a family room. Plenty of space for forts. Our house here in Berkeley is little. We make forts, though we haven't made one in a while. The giant camo blanket, lightweight with strings sewn into the edges, is perfect for fort-making. We tie the strings to chairs and the iron handles on the heavy bench that used to be the shoe bench and now is the coffee table. I'm sure my mother worried sometimes that she was not doing our childhood right. It must have been so different from how she grew up, in a small town just outside Newark, shouting distance from the airport I've been flying into since childhood. She and my dad both grew up in the same town, Hillside, one mile square. I was born in upstate New York, land of gray sky, and then they moved to the desert ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesReward boots It was a beautiful fall day, and I was only a little bit sick, so I decided to do my first round of the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up technique (the author calls it the KonMari method). I decided to start with something specific and manageable: my shoes. I gathered up all my shoes in one place, ferreting them out of their various storage spots, even remembering the old slippers under my nightstand and a pair of flip flops hanging out in my bike pannier. All ... more -
Rebecca - - 2 responsesEvery six months or so, I look around my house and have a sharp, sudden desire to get rid of 75% of the items in it. The random plastic toy floating underfoot, the outgrown shoes I haven't had a chance to deal with yet, the tangled cords that surface here and there, the paper, oh the paper, that multiplies every time I turn my back. There are people in the world who are naturally very good at decluttering. People like my sister and my friend Meghan, who have no sentimental attachments to old ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesIn the yard, May 2014 Hydrangeas are the perfect plant for me. Ours always comes back, no matter how much we neglect it. Suddenly, our little yard has become everyone's favorite place to hang out, though no matter how gorgeous these blooms are, I think that's more due to the hot tub than anything. Yes, hot tub. This hot-water-lover's dream come true... *** Say hi! To leave a comment, click here & scroll down. -
Rebecca - - No responses5 minutes after the kids got home This is where the kids get clean. This is where they get dirty again. This is where I say to Emry for the thousandth time, "No drinking the bath water" in tones either patient or not-at-all patient, depending on the day. This is where I cook. This is where I stand, checking email on my phone, or looking out at the hummingbird, checking whether she is in her nest or whether she has taken herself off for a meal. She is never gone long. This is where spring ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesThe yard as backdrop to Emry's first birthday, October 2011 Sometimes I call it the patio, which is fairly accurate, and sometimes the garden, which is wishful thinking. Mostly I call it the yard, which is what we called outdoor space where I grew up. In the desert, on one acre, in the '80s, we had a front and a back yard: lawns, a wooden deck, a playhouse made by my dad and grandpa with square, circle, rectangle and triangle windows, swings, a plywood slide which would leave splinters in your ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesPantry after badly needed clean-up, February 2013 I have felt such a need to purge and clear out lately. What is this, some kind of early-early spring cleaning clock? I think it's more that the build up over the 4 and a half years we've lived in this house has suddenly... well, built up. To the point where, when I peek into certain closets, I feel like an ant contemplating the scale of a skyscraper, and so I close the curtain on it and go about my business. No, it's not ... more
READING MATERIAL
Featured
Recent
Comments
-
it’s a boy!We are so thrilled to welcome our baby boy to our family! Emry Isaiah Brams Davis October 22, 2010 7 lbs 15 oz, 20.5 inches Emry is a Welsh name…
-
the end of an eraToday my grandfather, Popa Al Alper, passed away. He was 101 and a half. June 2008 Back when he turned 99, many of you sent him postcards in the mail.…
-
In DecemberIt is December now, and I notice that for the past several months I have maintained silence here on my blog about how I have continued to deal with the…
-
a goalYesterday I spent a lot of time thinking and writing about what kinds of habits or practices I could put in place that will support my vision of myself as…
-
about my week offlineFamily photos at Bodega Bay in the fog, August 2011 I absolutely loved taking a week offline. We were in Colorado for a family reunion, so there were lots of…
-
All The Rest Is Just Icing30 weeks Warning: this post involves vomit. You might want to put down your sandwich. I might have mentioned before that I am not a puker. I have not vomited…
