A Near-Perfect Lullabye
It was a chamber of commerce day. The kind little league coaches, wedding planners and tourist boards dream about. Blue skies, warm sunshine, low humidity, gentle breezes, and a nagging […]
Category Archives: Parenting
Like So Many Farmers Before
By the time I pulled into the driveway a splendid spring evening had turned into a perfect night. The temperature was an even fifty degrees and the snow and ice […]
Free Nights
It was the same old script from the same old movie. Bleary-eyed businessman, half-dressed, swigging from a bottle of lukewarm Aquafina, clacking away at a hot laptop in a cold […]
Something Tells Me We’ve Met Before
The midnight room was dark, lit only by the flickering of a pair of beeswax candles and the trusty woodstove, and scented only by the crackling aroma of well-seasoned cherry […]
The Dews of Heaven
I keep a well-worn pocket-sized Spanish hymnbook in my nightstand for those warm, restless nights. When the peepers and crickets play a chorus as sweet and fuzzy and tender as […]
Equipment Dysfunction
“How many kids do you got?” Steve asked. The answer is eight, of course, though it sometimes feels like more. A lot more. There are times it feels like twenty. […]
¿Se Habla Tuxedo?
If a team of advance scouts from an alien race intent on overtaking our planet were to reconnoiter from a back table at a business summit they would probably knock […]
Sleep Tips for Parents
It was so late that even the crickets had knocked off for the night. Alison caught me just as I had begun an irreversible kamikaze dive into bed. The dives […]
Mothers, Earth – And Fathers Too
After a full day of planting progressively more crooked rows of kale and cabbage and turnips – “a lot of food,” as Alison put it, “the kids will never eat” […]
Goatsourcing™
The two young and remarkably sleep-resistant boys flapped excitedly from the second floor window as their older brother James completed yet another lap around on the riding lawnmower. Evening sky […]
Paul Fredenberg 