The most strenuous thing that I was supposed to be doing today was getting my hair cut. I mean, I nearly cancelled the appointment. It’s been in my calendar for two months, and I obviously hadn’t known I’d be sick when I booked it, but there I was vacillating between keeping and and cancelling it…
When we first moved into our house and it was a major topic of conversation whenever meeting friends and acquaintances, we naturally discussed what sort of maintenance and repairs were needed to be done initially. I was repeatedly warned, however, to not stress about “getting everything finished”. “Sure, you’ll never actually finish doing everything. The house will…
There is something tranquil about being able to watch your child fall asleep as they finally lose the battle to keep their eyes open. Their eyelashes flutter closed. Their forehead smooths out, and a sense of peace flows over the whole scene. Given the inherent nature of this sight, I therefore find it deeply and…
Maybe it’s cabin fever, or maybe it’s being slightly under the weather, but today I had to get out of the house for some undivided solitude. I love my son, but the constant demands to entertain him and play with him wear me down and make me cranky, cantankerous, and short-tempered. So I took the…
Years and years ago I was studying abroad in London. I went to visit a college friend who was studying abroad in Dublin and she introduced me to the Mister. Fast forward and we both ended up in Ireland and she imported to our circle of Irish friends the American pot luck Thanksgiving Dinner tradition.…
This morning was one of those not quite completely miserable but still utterly unpleasant Irish mornings. The temperatures were warm but the drizzle drenched everything without actually forming much in the way of rain drops. Struggling with a rain cover for the stroller, while standing in the rain, is one of those things that can…
As someone who formerly studied international relations and international politics, I am enjoy staying informed about current events. I will admit that the last few years, marked as they have been by the prevalence of child-induced sleep deprivation and fatigue, I have made less efforts to do so on occasions. But I am generally not…
As the weather starts to slowly get colder, the rain more prevalent, and the evenings darker, it’s obvious that I’m saying a small goodbye to the summer each day at a time. This is, of course, perfectly normal and cyclical. I am not a fan of colder weather and darker days, but I love the…
I was recalling this moment as I was hanging up laundry the other day back at home in Dublin. (Wait, who am I kidding? I hang up laundry every day in Dublin right now. My loads seem to consist of teeny tiny underpants and I’m running out of jokes about shrinking my own underwear.) This…
I won’t lie, the last thirty six hours have been a bit on the rough side. I’m not saying they were bad. Life isn’t meant to be easy all the time. Good things sometimes require some stress and angst before they can be enjoyed properly. So yes, there was stress, and frustration, and gnashing of teeth.…
The world is slowly tilting away from seeing fathers solely as “the head of the family”, “the providers”, or those cold and distant authoritarian disciplinarians to, well… seeing them as fathers, with all the guts and glory that it entails. What does that mean? Well, it means accepting fathers as full partners in this whole…
The Feathered Rose 