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For All I Can Tell: Sudden Angels Part 5: Nan
http://sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com/2015/06/sudden-angles-part-5-nan.html
For All I Can Tell. Monday, June 29, 2015. Sudden Angels Part 5: Nan. This is how I first saw Nan- bent over and busy. I only knew her as the blonde head among blossoms, clipping and trimming, garden debris flying behind her. For three years, I walked our dog Maria in silence past her house. So I was startled one morning when she emerged from her garage as I turned down the alley. Face to face for the first time, I told her how much I admired her flowers. She thanked me. We both moved on. When we put our...
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For All I Can Tell: The Truest Clock
http://sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-truest-clock.html
For All I Can Tell. Wednesday, April 22, 2015. My husband Cliff has been retired for almost a year now. He served forty-one years in elementary education at public and private schools. During that time, he taught everything from pre-school through sixth grade and spent half his career as a principal. Never once was he wrong about anything in a school. Ever. I have never encountered anyone else like him in the school business. Early in his administrative career, he found himself twisting in the wind over ...
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For All I Can Tell: October 2014
http://sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com/2014_10_01_archive.html
For All I Can Tell. Tuesday, October 7, 2014. The Hosta Daily News. I began with the best intentions when I walked Maria the other day. I cleared my mind of grocery lists, crabgrass removal, our daughter's mounting school deadlines. I strolled along and welcomed the day. That worked for a few blocks. Next thing I knew, I puzzled over dinner. Didn't I just make chicken and pasta last night? Hasn't Maggie decided she's tired of asparagus? Did Cliff tell me he couldn't look another salad in the face? As I p...
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For All I Can Tell: Making Black Sheep: The Group Consequence Fallacy
http://sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com/2015/03/black-sheep-black-sheep-give-us-your.html
For All I Can Tell. Wednesday, March 11, 2015. Making Black Sheep: The Group Consequence Fallacy. One evening Cliff delivered popcorn to Maggie, who had stayed home from school with a cold that day. Her first grade teacher had sent the treat. She cried. It took a while to understand her distress, but the popcorn signified a special reward party that she'd missed. She missed the reward. Receiving stale popcorn in isolation was hardly the same experience. This kind of group consequencing makes the other ch...
sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com
For All I Can Tell: June 2015
http://sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com/2015_06_01_archive.html
For All I Can Tell. Monday, June 29, 2015. Sudden Angels Part 5: Nan. This is how I first saw Nan- bent over and busy. I only knew her as the blonde head among blossoms, clipping and trimming, garden debris flying behind her. For three years, I walked our dog Maria in silence past her house. So I was startled one morning when she emerged from her garage as I turned down the alley. Face to face for the first time, I told her how much I admired her flowers. She thanked me. We both moved on. When we put our...
sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com
For All I Can Tell: April 2015
http://sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com/2015_04_01_archive.html
For All I Can Tell. Wednesday, April 22, 2015. My husband Cliff has been retired for almost a year now. He served forty-one years in elementary education at public and private schools. During that time, he taught everything from pre-school through sixth grade and spent half his career as a principal. Never once was he wrong about anything in a school. Ever. I have never encountered anyone else like him in the school business. Early in his administrative career, he found himself twisting in the wind over ...
sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com
For All I Can Tell: July 2015
http://sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com/2015_07_01_archive.html
For All I Can Tell. Thursday, July 23, 2015. Sudden Angels Part 6: Two Butterflies. Last Sunday I ripped my closet to pieces, looking for a scarf. Because we're both children's authors, we were seated several years ago at a long table with our books at a kindergarten teachers' convention. I'd recently moved to Minnesota and knew almost no one. Wallflower that I am, I was frozen in my chair. Back to the scarf. I looked everywhere, getting more desperate. Because we move next week, I knew it would ...We ha...
sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com
For All I Can Tell: December 2014
http://sweetmoonbaby.blogspot.com/2014_12_01_archive.html
For All I Can Tell. Sunday, December 21, 2014. O Tannenbaum, Across the Sea. Our family Christmas tree ritual was the same every year when I was growing up. I knew he'd found the winner. All I had to do was agree. My mother always said it was too tall. He never agreed. When the angel was placed on top, it missed the ceiling by an inch or less every year. My dad knew what he knew. Karen and I just got lucky," he'd answer and wink at me. But my dad wasn't always lucky. Fate dealt him some bad cards. He was...
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For All I Can Tell: Two Mothers, Two Daughters, One Moon
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For All I Can Tell. Monday, March 30, 2015. Two Mothers, Two Daughters, One Moon. I used to think I turned the pages of my life, but not anymore. Not quite at least. Now I believe circumstances and faces and objects steadily float past me, and the trick is learning which details have meaning and how to catch them. When we adopted Maggie from China, I became a stay-at-home mother. I'd had careers, but nothing ever stuck. I'd always been waiting for something else. I re-thought my outreach plan. We wen...
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