I hate feeling vulnerable, like I feel right now. I just hit send on an e-mail to a colleague regarding a work issue. I cannot talk to this person as I have never met her nor do I know where she lives. It is a long-distance working relationship within which time and space are dimensions …
I am trying to make sense of myself tonight. It has been a long day, not conducive to thinking. I got up late this morning, missed the alarm altogether. That means I am half an hour behind all day. In my subconscious, the thoughts linger from our argument last night, but I am able to …
MacDonald’s restaurant might just be the last place on earth where anything goes. If it was up to me, I would never darken the doors of this particular fast-food joint, but with four children in tow, regular visits come with the territory. I, for one, generally do not leave saying “I’m lovin’ it.” We are …
I am pushing a cart with my three noisy daughters through the grocery section of Walmart. I bend down to adjust the box of grape canned pop on the bottom wire rack, when I straighten and see her. She is pushing past me with her own teenage daughter in tow, looking in a hurry and …
We are all, more or less, standing around the kitchen trying to decide how to spend a rare free night. My eleven year-old son wants to watch a movie, and is very vocal about his choice. I think it would be quite nice to play a family game, despite the varied ages of our four …
I have all of ten minutes, yet that is just enough time to find out that the two girls are doing well and meeting all expectations and outcomes per their grade level. I am glowing with pride at their success. I listen as teachers gush over their writing and leadership abilities. I almost feel embarrassed …
I am cuddled in bed with my youngest. This, after she has jumped all over the bed and I have calmed her down by rubbing cream on her hands and feet, a nightly calming ritual as much as the bedtime story we are about to read together. Tonight’s selection, Stellaluna by Janell Cannon, is the …
It is 5:45 a.m., and the alarm goes off. I think it sounded, or it could just be a ringing noise in my head. Oh well. I’m up anyways, as is my husband, and my second youngest. I drag my sorry self out of bed, and send my sweet little one back to bed. She …
I logged onto Facebook this afternoon and saw a post on a group page of which I am a member. This is the post I read: The boy you punched in the hall today committed suicide a few minutes ago. That girl you called a slut in class today, she’s a virgin. The boy you …
When I first moved to P.E.I., I had never heard of a wake. Well, I had heard of a wake, it just was not the funeral kind. Wake was a verb that my father used on school days when I wasn’t getting out of bed in time to do the essential morning prep before school, …
The dog is jumping excitedly around my oldest daughter’s feet. She is trying to teach Lucky, our four and a half month old Mini Australian Shepherd, how to shake a paw. Although, I think at present the lesson has disintegrated into a jumble of paws, feet and hands going every which direction. The four-year old …
She skates away from me toward the far end of the ice, a tiny doll dressed in sparkly teal and purple costume. Spindly legs swathed in nude-coloured nylon extend from the white boots on her feet. I stand behind the glass and wait with her, wait expectantly for the music to begin. She is poised …