Lately, I’ve been caught up believing that everyone but me has The Perfect Family. While my family is inundated with problems and angst, other parents tweet their children’s unending stream of age-advanced adorable chatter. Other parents let us know that each of their children has an iPhone and an iPod…and they’re all under 10. The news features stories…
Spring break is winding down. I’ve accomplished quite a bit, which is a nice feeling. Next week things will be back to normal–well as normal as they get in KlineLand. To ring in the holiday weekend, I share with you my favorite commercial. You read that right…favorite commercial. I even stop fast forwarding just to…
It’s Ash Wednesday, the forty days of Lent leading up to Easter. People are not dirty, they have ashes from whatever service they attended to mark the start of this sullen time in the Catholic church. I am not attending a service, but I am observing Lent. This year I am giving up chocolate. I’m…
An 11 year old Spanish boy was so afraid of his parents’ attendance at his parent-teacher conference that he faked his own kidnapping. His father, a policeman, rallied the forces and began searching for the abducted pre-teen. Then he noticed keys to another apartment were missing. Upon investigating, he found his son safe and sound…and…
The December doldrums have set in. There’s something about this time of year that just gets to me. I know I’m not alone, but that only makes me feel marginally better. If I know this feeling is coming, why can’t I get over it?! For parents, this time of year is riddled with guilty feelings.…
You might remember when I declared myself a brave brave woman because I went completely grey. I stayed that way for over a year. The thing is, that while I had two patches of cool white hair, the rest of my hair was the color of corrugated pipe. Have you ever ever heard someone declare…
Here in America, we have a tendency to focus on something and suddenly it happens everywhere. I don’t know if this happens in other cultures. I don’t know if it happens more because we live in an instantaneous/share everything/share immediately society. We no longer have to be the nosy neighbor on the front porch checking…
No one can make me…feel bad about myself if I don’t let them. We’ve all heard the Eleanor Roosevelt quote before. But sometimes, I confess, I let them get to me. This week, particularly, I had one of those triggering moments. What is a triggering moment? It’s the moment when something happening in the here…
I normally drive because we use the turbo mini van a lot more than Jim’s Impala. When the giant boys were growing, they just fit better. These days we just like having the option of all the room available to us. You never know when you’re going to have to haul something huge home. I…
We decided to replace our elderly dishwasher last week. It’s been in the house since we moved in twelve years ago. We bought from flippers and they didn’t exactly splurge on the dishwasher. It was a dented, harvest gold, work horse of a dishwasher that seemed determined to win some sort of lifetime achievement award.…