Moving–New Adventures

Well, it’s been a tumultuous and stressful few months. In November, I decided to start applying for jobs. By January, I had decided that I would definitely be leaving my job. I had several interviews (on Zoom, but for jobs all over the country), and I decided to accept an offer from Western Kentucky University.…

Some Silly Things and A Family Outing

Porter and I went for a hike the other day. I was talking about the conference to my friend, and Porter sighed heavily and said, “Blah, blah, blah.” That must be how he feels about me talking about my work! I got an email from LEGO about a mini model build (which they apparently do…

I’m No Expert

While my job makes one an expert on something–in my case, Mexican American and Chicano/a literature–it makes us far from experts on other things. There then becomes an opportunity to trust someone else to do their job and be an expert, or to micromanage, second guess, and try to become knowledgeable about everything. In the…

Home Improvements in a Tiny Space

We’ve come to terms with the idea that we are going to be in this house a long time. It’s small (1000 sq. ft.) but it can be functional for us. After a couple of IKEA trips, we’ve successfully reconfigured a few things. We have two bigger bedrooms, one for Patrick and me and one…

Easter Weekend

Yesterday felt like Saturday. We got so much done.  I walked the boys to a new park and we played a long time–up and down the slides, experimenting with the sound tubes, running willy-nilly around the wide open space, counting tree rings, trying to get close to birds without scaring them…a fun morning, if  a…

On My Street

I’m having a lot of trouble focusing on grading response papers after teaching my classes today, so I thought I’d let you in on a little blog post I’ve been working on in my head. On my street there are big houses and small houses, and thanks to my across the street neighbors, I’ve gotten…

Shenandoah and the Solo

We’ve had a bunch of stuff going on that I’ve been wanting to write about but I forget to do it all…. Last weekend, my parents visited and Patrick and I had planned to go camping in Shenandoah National Park. Had being the operative word. We got up there and the trees were beautiful. We…

Registering a Car in Virginia

Is a giant pain. First you have to have a car. Then you have to get inspected, injected, infected, and ne-glected. Or not. Actually you do have to get and inspection, but before that, you try to anticipate any problems with the machinery that the inspection will turn up. We got new tires for the…

Here’s How the Day Goes

With P in Grand Rapids at a conference, I’ve been flying solo with the boys for oh, 37 hours. It is not so bad, but I suspect that’s because they’re napping at the same time and P’s dad comes over to help with dinner/bed routine. Yesterday was a day in the house because we were…

Internet is Hooked Up!

That is cause for celebration. And bad parenting. I got totally distracted by the internet today, only to discover that Gilbert was sitting behind me calmly eating incense. Oops. Lesson not learned. A few minutes later, I was still distracted, and I discovered that the boys are going to start ganging up on me. It’s inevitable.…