Author Archives: Jess

typewriter girl

We had a hard time thinking of a good gift for Brenna’s birthday.  She’s 10.  My little baby is right between being a little kid that loves to play with toys and a big kid– you know, one that just wants clothes.  I did really consider getting a Playmobil set, but I just hate having the big plastic things.  I don’t mind all the little pieces– they are the things that get played with, but the the big hunks of plastic that are the buildings I could really do without.

Then I remembered the constant asking for a typewriter like Kit who, in the books, wrote a newspaper with her typewriter every day.  The typewriter stars aligned for me and I found the perfect Smith-Corona Corsair Deluxe portable typewriter on eBay.  The clicking and clacking from her room only stop for her to go to the bathroom and eat.

birthday typewriter

typewriter poem

typer girl

Seriously, my budding poet/novelist is in love.  She is flying out to California today to meet her dad who has been out there judging the International Science and Engineering Fair.  Her typewriter is in her suitcase.

birthday typewriter

I couldn’t think of a good reason to say no.

Happy Mothers Day!

Our little mama finch has been hard at work filling her nest in our front door wreath.  I thought it fitting on this Mother’s day to show off what this little mama is working so hard to do.

happy mothers day!

10 years ago today I became a mother.  My little tiny Brenna came into this world and completely changed mine.  In so many ways I feel like I was born when she was– I found my strength and power and purpose.  And I finally began to understand my own Mom, to love and appreciate what I just didn’t have the capacity to love and appreciate before.

So, thanks mom for being my mom.  I love and admire you so much.  I think of all the little things– ordering me cool magazines so I could draw pictures of tigers all day long, not nagging me to practice the piano, but paying for lessons anyway, tolerating my messy room, but making me do my own laundry, lining up Action Packers along the kitchen wall to pack for week long camping trips and making it look so easy and fun.  In so many ways I am trying to be just like you, and it’s funny how in so many ways I am.

Thanks to all of you mothers who come here and read my blog.  Thanks for your comments and friendship and all the good you do in your own little sphere.  There is nothing more important in this world than being a mother.  I really believe that.

wreath nest