The Writer Reads

Shannon’s reading of her essay in Torn went very well! The house was packed with about 25 people (including the girls and Shannon’s parents, who came down to surprise her); her fellow essayist, Katy Read, did a wonderful job with her own piece; the Q&A was smooth and interesting; and of course Shannon read beautifully (and looked just as good):
The Writer Reading!

My Wife the Writer Does a Reading

On Wednesday, May 4, at 7:30 pm Shannon Hyland-Tassava and Katy Read will read from Torn: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood at Monkey See Monkey Read in downtown Northfield (420 Division Street; 507-645-6700).

Torn: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood
Torn: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood

TORN is an anthology edited by Samantha Parent Walravens. The 49 stories are fascinating, true, day-in-the-life vignettes about contemporary motherhood, written by both working and stay-at-home moms. Its contributors are mothers who work because their finances require it and those who work to preserve their sanity, stay-at-home moms who love mothering and those who long for more. Along with these tales from the inner sanctum of motherhood, TORN also includes contributions from outsiders: women whose busy personal and professional lives got in the way until the motherhood option was no longer open for them.

TORN is a treat for any working or stay-at-home mom who needs reassurance that she is not alone–that her frustrations and her joys are shared by women of every age and income group nationwide. The perfect Mothers’ Day gift, TORN is also an ideal present for baby showers and a must-read for any book group.

Julia on Love

The other night, Julia and I had a conversation about whom one can marry. She was going through all the usual permutations, trying to figure out why she can’t marry her sister or her father. She asked if she could marry her best friend. I told her, “Sure you can. I married my best friend.”

Her eyebrows went up dubiously. “Who?” (This is probably the most concise critique of married-with-children life ever.)

“Your mother!”

She smiled, relieved. “Ohhhhhhh. But how did you know you wanted to marry her? Did you just see her and go up to her and say, ‘I love you!’?”

First-Grade Tagger

This is what happens when you have your first grader help wrap her mother’s presents and make tags for them. You can just barely see the gift under the “tag,” which in fact has a whole fold-out angle going on. (Julia made another, slightly smaller tag, while Genevieve interpreted “tag” to mean “a dozen small markered-up hearts taped willy-nilly to the gifts.”)
Julia's Present "Tag"

Red Wing Noshing

We took a nice little road trip to Red Wing today, a pretty little town on the Mississippi River that apparently thrives by appealing equally to Big Ag and Big Service: the ADM grain mill is the most prominent feature on the riverfront, but the entire downtown is a temple to the tourist’s disposable income. We worshiped at various shops’ windows, and even paid obeisance at the Red Wing shoe museum (home of the “World’s Largest Boot” – crazy and cool) but we only tithed at the farmer’s market and at the incredible Hanisch Bakery, where the girls had massive, heavily frosted cookies; Shannon had a donut; and I had both a delicious caramel roll and a maple-bacon donut. We later went to a playground where the girls burned off their cookies and I tried to resist the soporific effect of bacon.

Hanisch Bakery Treats - 1

Hanisch Bakery Treat - Maple Bacon Donut

Grampa

Soon, I’ll finally get around to writing a post about my late Grandpa, but for now here’s a great picture of him with two of his workhorses. The man was a teamster in the original sense of the word, and his love for the animals is obvious. One of the best moments I ever had with him was an impromptu sleigh ride around his property with him and a bunch of cousins and Shannon at some long-ago Christmastime…
Grampa Jauquet

Big Chairs Are Big Fun

One of our wonderful neighbors – someone who runs Swag, a great (web-invisible) shop in downtown Northfield – bought some oversized adirondack chairs for her backyard. Before wheeling them out of sight, she invited us to come over and sit in them, which we promptly did, being suckers for a cheap fun time. Julia predictably said that it was like sitting in a throne, and in fact it really was. They’re very comfy – even if they’re about a foot bigger in every dimension than most adirondacks. I wouldn’t mind having a set, though we’d need about three times as much patio space.
Giant Chairs - 2

Betsy-Tacy Spectacular

The Betsy-Tacy road trip was a huge hit.* We spent the better part of four hours touring the beautiful (tiny!) houses, walking the neighborhood, and picnicking in the same park where Betsy, Tacy, and Tib picnicked. The girls were great – curious about the oddities in the houses (a sewing machine! old-fashioned telephones!), patient on the tour (even answering some of the guide’s questions), and eager to see everything we could – and to pick up a Betsy-Tacy coloring book for each of them.

A few shots from the day are below; I especially like the picture of the girls at a stove like the one that B, T, and T used to make “Everything Pudding.”

* I must note that I’m especially happy the outing was such a success since it was my idea. I had no idea if any of the other members of the family would think it was a good idea, much less enjoy the trip, so I’m pleased that they all did.

Summer Giddiness

I had an oddly happy, satisfied, excited feeling all day today. Absurdly, I initially chalked it up to having a quiet, meeting-free day at work in which to get a lot done. I did, and I did, but after dinner, playing outside with the girls, I realized that the sensation was much more due to the fact that today’s really the start of summer, complete with typical crazy summer weather that ranged from deafening thundershowers this morning to hazy, humid sunshine this afternoon.

Narcissistically, summer is full of things to anticipate with eagerness. In a month, I’ll take a work-related trip to a professional meeting that is always valuable and that leaves me energized for the rest of the summer’s work. July is dominated by my second-most-favorite sporting event, the Tour de France, which is as complicated, excessive, and political as it is impressive. The long summer evenings leave plenty of time for sitting out on the patio with a beer and a book – including several good ones that are coming out this summer. And as much as I love being outside in the winter, I also love being outside in the summer: it’s the best season for working out. The heat and humidity (“What does not kill me…”), the sudden squalls, the dusty roads, the greening fields… I plan to take a couple workday afternoons off to do some long bike rides, for instance.

Work changes dramatically when – as it has – campus empties out: three-quarters of the students are long gone, and the seniors are only here through the weekend, with commencement occurring tomorrow. Come Monday, we’ll be in ghost town mode at Carleton. Which is, all things considered, pretty nice, both in its own right (fewer meetings! a less urgent pace! lots of time for projects! summer dress code!) and in comparison to the happy hubbub of campus during the school year.

At home, today was our first pick up at our CSA farm, Open Hands, the produce of which pretty much means “summer” to us. Shannon and the girls went out there this afternoon, caught up with the proprietors and their dog, and brought home a nice trove of produce, including lots of greens and some tiny, fantastically sweet strawberries – which we enjoyed with homemade pizza for dinner.

And most importantly, today was Julia’s last day of kindergarten. She’s a first grader now, ready to soak up her first true summer vacation (even if she doesn’t yet know just how lucky she is). Vivi’s been done with preschool for a while, but many things have been on hold until Julia finished up. With K now history, it’s on to summer: soccer and swimming lessons for Julia, summer “school” for Vivi, picnics, lots of outdoor play – all the things that Shannon excels at planning and carrying out. They’re going to have a lot of fun – at least as much fun as these yahoos who were in my yard last summer.
First Swim of the Season

Mother’s Day Ups and Downs

I dunno why, but Mother’s Day 2010 was quite the up-and-down affair at our house. On the “down” side, Genevieve has some sort of cold-allergy thing, Julia acted like a bratty teenager several times (including once while we were out for bagels this morning: mortifying), and, worst, the girls ended one activity by actually hitting each other – a first in our house.

On the “up” side, the girls occupied themselves (before the mano-a-mano) for about a half hour by moving literally all their kitchen toys (including two tables and two chairs!) from the playroom to a “house” in their bedroom, we had a nice outing to Dairy Queen for cones and sundaes, and the girls were positively over the moon about giving some gifts to their Mama and bringing her “breakfast in bed” – a scone and a latte picked up at the coffeeshop and delivered about four hours after Shannon actually got up.

In sum, the day was probably 65/35 to the good. Better luck next year?

Rec and Roll

At the risk of using up my entire yearly quota of good parenting ideas in the first third of January, this morning I suggested that we all go to Carleton’s fabulous Recreation Center for some exercise – Shannon could run while I played with the girls. Amazingly, it was a complete success. Not only was the Rec pretty quiet, but the girls loved it, first kicking a ball all over creation, then doing a short lap with Mama,

Rec Center Runners

then throwing racquetballs in one of the r-ball courts (they’re enclosed! the ball always comes right back!) and finally, watching a karate class. Excellent fun.

Bye Bye, Baby

Innumerable small and large changes mark the girls’ transitions away from being babies and toddlers and toward being kids – a term they both, interestingly, embrace. Lots of these changes are fairly public: going to preschool and kindergarten, potty training, learning to write and to read. Other changes are more private, but still pretty obvious, especially within the family: the decay of the napping schedule, their ability to play by themselves for increasingly long periods of time, an interest in certain kinds of new challenges.

And then there is a third set of changes, shifts that are subtle and individually trivial, but cumulatively transformative. The best and most current example of this kind of change is the ongoing reversal of all the babyproofing that we did years ago and the creation of a house that’s again suited for adults. It’s already been years since we removed the ugly foam pads from the sharp corners of various pieces of furniture, of course, but it’s only in the last few months that we’ve tossed out most of those annoying and stupid cabinet-door locks that the girls have been able to defeat for months. I tell you what, it’s wonderful to just be able to open the damn cabinet under the kitchen sink when we want to throw something in the trash – rather than using one hand to awkwardly jiggle the lock open without dropping the trash in the other hand. It’s a tiny thing, but wonderful in its own tiny way.

Now, if only we can take all the finger-killing plastic guards out of the electrical outlets and take down the gate at the top of the steps! I have no idea if the former is necessary anymore, since neither of my girls have ever shown any interest in jamming things into the sockets, but the latter still is – when Shannon wants to keep the girls from coming downstairs. I only hope we can take it down before on of the girls accidentally rips it out of the wall by crashing into it…

Winter Walk

Northfield’s not short on great official and unofficial traditions, but the Winter Walk is one of the best. This is the third year that we’ve attended, and the first year that everybody walked the whole time (except for the short ride on a wagon pulled by two giant Percherons). This photo shows that the girls enjoyed it – and at this point, they had only had one cookie!

Winter Walkers
Winter Walkers