Helping Your Middle School Student with his/her failing grades [FULL TEXT]
education . freelance writing . motherhoodOriginally published on March 30, 2017 in On Parenting, the Lifestyle section of the Washington Post. It needed trimming for WaPo but I wanted to put the full text on my site. It was really well received and even tweeted by the National Council for Teachers of English & Dad 2.0 Summit. So it’s the
The 90s Nostalgia Writer Position at Bustle Mag
entertainment . freelance writing . workThere’s a part-time position open in the Lifestyle vertical at Bustle. One of the questions on the application is “Give us sample pitches” that pertain to this vertical. I thought it would be fun to share my possible articles for Bustle. Headline: How Mariah Carey saved 90s music. Vision of Love was released in
Lieselotte Landgrebe, 1932-2016
family . long island . motherhoodMy grandmother died last month. Below is the eulogy that I wrote for her and read at her funeral… Oma wasn’t your typical grandma/nana type. No smells of baked goods wafting from a kitchen window or overly saccharine compliments. She was German-American, a child of the Great Depression, and she survived many hardships. Her way
Earlier this week, in an effort combat the longer summer days and make sure my kids sleep in (purely for my own sake), I taped cardboard on their window behind the blackout curtains. See the screenshot from Facebook. Judging by the emojis, other moms are in the same boat or were when their respective children
The opening chords of Fifth Harmony’s “Work from Home” trigger a hysterical reaction in both of my children. Darcy closes her eyes (a classic Darcy dance move) and begins conducting an invisible orchestra of synthesizers. And Jackson hides behind a “curtain,” or whatever piece of furniture will hide him adequately so he can make a big
I’m profoundly sad about Adrienne Rich’s death. I’m also profoundly grateful for her life and work. Don’t expect anything insightful from me. Nothing I can say will pay adequate homage. Just bookmarking this event on my blog for posterity, I guess. I enjoy everything about her poetry, her politics, and the intersection of the two.
They are probably doing something wrong. I’ve walked in on shampoo painted on the bathroom walls, evidence of cave baby in her natural habitat. I’ve walked in on my son stuffing a scarf in my daughter’s shirt and proclaiming she now has boobs. “Now she can go to parties,” he smiled brightly. Let’s not even touch
Farewell, Austin
austin . C.K. . family . food . friends(written from the Embassy Suites on Congress Avenue in Austin, TX on August 20, 2015) Hi, I need to order four pies. Beat. Yes, pizza pies. 2 pepperoni and 2 regular. Beat. Yes, 2 with pepperoni and 2 with just cheese. My husband called our local pizzeria to buy lunch for our moving guys. His
My piece about Women’s Storybook Project was published on Motherlode, the New York Times parenting blog, a few weeks ago. I’ve been pitching to editor K.J. Dell’Antonio for a few years now. I think my first pitch was about conducting a successful kickstarter project to publish my novel while I had a toddler at home.