1. I believe in love at first sight; it happened to me. Okay, maybe not first sight since I am not that shallow, but at first conversation. I knew then, but he did not for many months. Somehow I managed to keep it to myself until he had seen the light! We’ve been married 45 years, and are each others’ biggest fans. 2. I use cotton handkerchiefs and so does my husband. I even iron […]
Monday in Paris was a very French day, at least the eating part. The children were tired, so Allie let them rest all morning. We met one of Allie’s students, Paula, and her husband Dave for lunch around 12:30 at Chez Gladines, a Basque restaurant in our little village of Butte aux Cailles that they wanted to try. All of these places are tiny, so moving 8 of us into a table with an infant […]
The short story is that I got conscripted with a couple of weeks’ notice to escort two of my grandchildren (Emma, 13 and Daylen 9) to Paris where their parents are teaching in a study abroad program for a month. The kids were to spend the last week of November with them in Paris, but my daughter discovered at the last minute that they could not travel alone. Alas, the duties of a Nana! I have […]
It is the weekend after Thanksgiving, and my home is full of grandchildren and their parents. Tonight as 7-year-old John was saying goodnight, I asked if he might please try to sleep a little longer tomorrow morning. He is our earliest riser, and I always feel he’d do better with a bit more sleep. He looked up at me with big eyes, then said in his little piping, hesitating voice, “Nana, do you want to […]
When you look into the eyes of a young child first thing in the morning, you know with certainty what sleep is for. It is the original reboot. Sleep for a child is intensely refreshing, filling the tanks to overflowing for another day. I know this because we kept our grandchildren who are 1 1/2, 4 and 5 for about 26 hours, but who’s counting? And when my husband and I arose bleary-eyed from replacing […]
A handful of quietness 