Christmas movies turn up on the Lifetime and Hallmark channels ahead of the holiday. Though of the two Lifetime channels we have, one is still playing a movie that involves a cheerleader who murders or a mom who murders or — as in the movie I checked right now to make sure I wasn’t exaggerating…
When all my parenting was hypothetical, my biggest perceived school-age deficit was math. With the invention of apps like Photomath (it’s free, shows you not only the answer, but the steps, and I already depend on it for 5th grade math), it hasn’t been as tough as I expected. (Though to be fair, I co-parent…
This afternoon, I picked up a copy of Lynda Hunt’s Fish in a Tree, the story of a student with dyslexia, at the Edmonds Bookshop. It was one of those interactions that went exactly right on all levels. Despite my calling ahead of business hours, when the reminder showed up on my phone, I was…
When my kids were small and the costumes were still toddling spiders or mini firefighters, my main goal was to get as much use out of costumes as possible with the most amount of pictures. Once the kids started school, their yearly school event added an indoor option, which has a photo booth, so I…
“When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone is the house is happy to see you” – Nora Ephron from I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. The first time I read this, I know I thought it was funny. While I used…
About a year ago, the Rotary Club of Edmonds announced it would suspend the Edmonds Waterfront Festival. The event had run for 31 years at the Port of Edmonds Marina. Then-president David Kaufer explained the group decided to take that step “after carefully evaluating and analyzing the return on investment, both in capital and volunteer…
Thanks to a new zero period and lack of previously expected transportation, we’re adjusting to a new back-to-school routine. With more moving parts, there are more days of the week where we repeatedly call out things like “homework,” “PE clothes,” and “turn that off now” as if we’re auctioneers or playing some sort of parents…
Thanks to a new zero period and lack of previously expected transportation, we’re adjusting to a new back-to-school routine. With more moving parts, there are more days of the week where we repeatedly call out things like “homework,” “PE clothes,” and “turn that off now” as if we’re auctioneers or playing some sort of parents…
In an email I got from the Foundation for Edmonds School District, I found out that over the last year, the Celebrate Schools 5k grants funded projects benefiting thousands of students, across all grade levels. For example, it went to “afterschool reading and math tutoring, a Festival of Cultures, 5th Grade Law Day, Family Math…
This past week while waiting in line at my most-frequented grocery store, I heard the checker tell the group ahead of me, with angst or dread maybe, that “summer was over,” in part due to the weather we were having that day, and also because Seafair was over. When it was my turn in line…
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I don’t want to break the seal on “Back to School” topics and not because I’m an eternal summer kind of person, but because that means it’ll be Christmas at Joann’s and Michael’s any minute. Plus, I am still recovering from seemingly endless 4th grade book reports and jockeying Skyward/Canvas/Google Classroom as the parent of…
I recently went to my first school board meeting. As someone who has carefully avoided manning the games at our school’s Harvest (read: Halloween) festival since 2011, that is certainly not something I could have forecasted, but there I was taking my three minutes during a public comment portion. The road from occasional, reluctant classroom…
Just out of high school, I worked in the dining hall of a retirement community – the decor looked a lot like a Marie Callender’s, with coordinated chairs and carpeting and decorative touches only seen in a restaurant. My great-grandfather used to come over to my grandparents’ home for dinner, so until I took this…
Given just how expensive summer can be — be it childcare, camps, vacations, or the incidentals at a touristy place — I try to look for fun but free-to-low-cost things to do. This past weekend, the event that fit the bill was Seattle Bot Battles, a free event at the Seattle Center featuring a few…
Last summer, we piled into the van and headed to the Granite Falls Library for Hogwarts Summer School. We ate snacks, watched a magician, and the kids made Harry Potter-themed crafts. Since it was about a 45-minute drive, we turned it into a bit of a day trip, stopping on the way home at Funko…
After my middle schooler suffered a concussion in his main sport this winter, we found out just how important exercise and, additionally, a team sport/group activity was for him. He went from hour-long practices twice a week and a game on the weekend with locker room time before and after, to not only no sports,…
This week, I am writing my column about summer reading inside the library. I’d like to say that it is because I am going to cover all of the local summer reading options and the fun Sno-Isle Explore Summer events and I wanted to immerse myself in the environment that I was writing about, but…
All it took was hearing that a friend’s third-grade daughter has been playing basketball in their driveway to get me woozy at the thought of her signing up for a basketball team. I loved playing basketball and being on that particular team in 9th and 10th grade. What is different about my basketball experience and…
The Edmonds School District 2019-2020 Family and Community Calendar was released Friday. This is the one with all the shapes denoting which days are holidays, half-days, teacher conferences, or the snow days we are using all of this year. I print this calendar and post it in the kitchen every year, and while I still…
As a sure sign of summer on deck, we’ve reached the point of the school year where we’re counting the total number of days left — I count 21 1/2 days with the final day of school being a half day on June 26. Another sign is that the Hazel Miller Spray Park at City…
Let’s talk about soccer! Soccer seems to be the gateway sport for a large number of kids. It was the first shot we took at a sport with both of my kids before landing on hockey, and lacrosse and skateboarding respectively. We started out my oldest on Lil’ Kickers and then Kidz Love Soccer, which…
There is so much stuff to do this weekend, it’s hard to know where to start. It’s less of a ‘What is there to do?’ weekend and more of a ‘How much can we fit in?’ kind of weekend. The fun starts on Friday night at the Edmonds Historical Museum with their second Archaeology at…
According to my weather app, the next 10 days will have varying degrees of sun in them and as of today, I don’t see any rain in the forecast. This forecast of 10 days of sun/not rain is just the kind of thing that makes the next bout of rain so annoying. It’s not so…
Each year, our Girl Scout cookies arrive at our house via our favorite Brownie, who as I understand will soon “bridge” to Juniors. Usually, she hands us the cookies and as she thanks us for supporting the Girl Scouts, I try not to get misty over how cute it is and how much she’s grown….
Spring break and when family come into town are two times we become tourists in the place we live. Being as we had family in town during the beginning of this spring break, we have visited a lot of local places we wouldn’t necessarily see on a regular ol’ weekday/weekend. Since we were in Monroe…
