This has nothing to do with working, and everything to do with being a parent.

The little kids and I had an excellent weekend. We went to karate class, ran errands, and picked apples. We went on a hay ride and chose pumpkins right from the pumpkin patch and ran ourselves ragged at a really cool playground. We played Chutes and Ladders five times, folded laundry, re-folded laundry after it was used as a landing platform for a bed-jumping contest, and drank warm apple cider with cinnamon sticks for straws.

And now, just a few hours later, my nearly 4-year-old is in the hospital with an IV full of antibiotics, and I don’t know what’s wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

Even though I love to cook, there are definitely days when I feel all cooked out — when the very thought of planning and thawing and cooking makes me not want to eat for a week. Makes me look at my kids and ask, “Didn’t I feed you earlier? What do you mean you want dinner now?”

We deal with some food allergies at our house, so stopping off and picking up a pizza or fast-food isn’t an option. But roasting an extra chicken and stashing it, in advance, in pieces, in the freezer, is. If you’re more gastrointestinally normal than we are, you can pick up a supermarket-roasted chicken on your way home instead. Either way, once you have that bird in hand, you have plenty of options. Here are five things you can do with leftover roasted chicken. Read the rest of this entry »

I feel like I should make the effort to festoon the house with ghouls and goblins — or at least pumpkins and bales of hay. Most of the houses in my sleepy little New England town slipped into full fall regalia the instant the leaves started changing; people around here hang out cute little flags with various icons celebrating various holidays at various times of year. Mailbox poles are twined with fake foliage, small orange pumpkins and warty-looking gourds sit atop stone walls, autumn-themed banners are hung by front doors.

Not at my house. Oh sure, as we get closer to Halloween, I’ll scoop the brains out of a pumpkin or two, carve eye holes and a crooked mouth, and set a tealight inside and call it good, and there will be plenty of candy for little trick-or-treaters, but don’t count on any splendid decorations, because, truth be told, I don’t have the time. But, also, I don’t have the inclination. Forgive me, Martha Stewart, for I have sinned: I don’t decorate. Read the rest of this entry »

Who is in charge in your household? The typical American home has seen a major change since the 1950s and 1960s, researchers say, with the majority of the important decisions now being made by women.

According to a new poll released last week by the Pew Research Center, 43 percent of respondents said that the woman makes the decisions in more of four key areas — household finances, weekend activities, big purchases for the home, and who controls the TV remote — than men. The guys have the upper hand in about 26 percent of all couples, and 31 percent said that they split decision-making responsibilities — even though that answer wasn’t one of the options given in the poll.

Pants for everyone!

But here’s the real news, buried in the poll results: In dual-income couples, it is the woman who has more say, regardless of whether she earns more or less than her partner. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m visiting my big kids and my in-laws right now — they live in the same town, which makes schlepping cross-country, if not easier, at least a good bit better — and while it’s not really a vacation, it’s as close to one as we get as a family, and so I usually just call it that.

So, I’m on vacation, kind of. And while there’s very little down time during these trips, one thing has become abundantly clear: I’ve forgotten how to relax. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t have the spare income to invest right now, aside from the automatic payments made via payroll withdrawal into my 401(k) — a thing I am, frankly, not willing to look at too closely these days (I’ve heard that the market is basically where it was in 1998, meaning that anything you’ve put in since then is there, but anything you’ve gained is gone). But I do pay plenty in taxes. So, in spite of my lack of investments, I feel very invested in the government’s proposed bailout of Wall Street. Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend we celebrated my god daughter’s and my niece’s 6th birthdays and my brother’s he-probably-doesn’t-want-me-to-tell-you-how-old-he-is birthday and on Friday afternoon, a few hours before we were supposed to hop into the car for a six-hour drive, I realized that I had completely forgotten to buy my god daughter a present.

Whoops.

No time to head to the toy store, or Target, or a chic boutique. But there’s a cool Asian grocery store near my office. Aside from great produce and dirt-cheap-but-delicious tea, they have a kitchenware section (with a lot of melamine bowls and bamboo steamers, yes, but also a few pretty pieces of pottery and china). I zipped on over. Read the rest of this entry »

I am Gen X through and through. Born in the early ’70s, came of age in the ’80s, started my career in ’90s, started a family of my own in the ’00s.

Growing up, I never, ever heard that I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. Because I was too young? Sure. Because power tools are dangerous if you don’t know how to use them? Absolutely. But because I was female? Never.

Does that make me a feminist by default? Read the rest of this entry »

I realized something the other day that took me by surprise: I do some of my best work when I’m stressed out of my gourd.

My stress levels are always pretty high. That’s not a complaint, it’s just a statement of fact. I don’t think it’s just because I’m juggling work and family — thought that undoubtedly contributes to it. I’m pretty sure it’s just the way I am.

But some days — OK, many days — my stress levels are higher than others. And those days, I’ve found, are the days when I become uber-productive. Read the rest of this entry »

I was going to write about 9/11, but your feed readers are probably full of posts on the subject. So, instead, I’ll mark today’s date with this 2001 quote from Jon Stewart:

“The view from my apartment was the World Trade Center, and now it’s gone, and they attacked it. This symbol of American ingenuity, and strength, and labor, and imagination and commerce, and it is gone. But you know what the view is now? The Statue of Liberty. … you can’t beat that.”

Never forget. But live life looking forward.

* * *

Last night, I fell asleep while putting the little ones to bed. When I woke up (in my preschooler’s room) nearly three hours later, I was totally useless. I stumbled downstairs, thinking that at the very least I needed to wash the dishes so they don’t linger overnight, but my husband had already done them and that threw me for a loop. (I meant to do dishes? And they’re done? And I didn’t do them? What else did I do unconsciously while I was thinking I needed to do it? Anything? Wait, what?) After wandering around aimlessly and sitting in front of my computer for a full three minutes before noticing it was off, I called it quits and went to bed for real.

Who knew that getting a little extra sleep could have the same effect on your body as sleep deprivation?

What I did know, even as I tripped going back up the stairs, was that my to-do list was going to double the next day. Because my current search for work-life balance involves some very carefully choreographed scheduling, and my impromptu nap had thrown that out of whack. Read the rest of this entry »