June is here! The end of school is nigh! Run for your lives! OK, maybe that’s my take on summer break. Maybe you actually look forward to mosquito-bitten days of tedium and kids bored to petty crime. Or, maybe you…

The call comes just as I am trying to pry open her stuck bedroom window. It’s almost time for dance class, and she’s forgotten her jazz pants. They’re in the bottom drawer of her dresser, she says. And can I…

Wisdom comes in the shape of my son’s size eleven running shoe. Several weeks ago I had foolishly challenged him to a hundred-yard dash. Now, as he runs easily away from me, his foot strikes tap out a message with…

It seemed like a good idea at the time. And how hard could it be, anyway? A sandwich, some cookies, a nice, ripe piece of fruit. A whimsical mix of the bedrock food groups, all prepared by my loving hand…

It is the day after a beautiful snowfall. The skies are clearing. The wind in the high pines unspools snow like tulle. I am supervising the outfitting of my two sons as they prepare to hit the sledding hill. “Have…

Sleeping bag? Check. Long underwear? Check. The waterproof boots from L.L. Bean I’ve had since college? Well, in need of new laces, but also check. Now if I could only find my old tent. Must be around here someplace. But…

Ah, December. The month when fall rounds the corner, stubs its toe on a discarded turkey bone, and careens towards winter. The month when autumn’s fiery foliage dims to dull brown husks collecting on our lawns and in our gutters.…

She’s sniffing. And pacing. And pawing the corner where the carpet meets the wall. C’mon now, girl, what’s the matter? Uh-oh. I think I know. The dog always figures it out first. There’s trouble brewing within these walls, a crisis-in-the-making…

It’s been forty years since I last laid eyes on him. Now here he is, tumbling out from between the pages of an old book I’ve brought down from the attic. Untouched and undisturbed all this time, my old Bart…

Author’s note: In order to preserve the dignity of this fine family magazine, underlined words in this column are to be pronounced backwards. Thank you. If you have a child in elementary school, you probably have opportunities to read to…