Here I Am With My Dates...Again... - december 31, 2010

In order to clear out some room in my life for writing, I’ve fallen back on a couple little tricks I happen to have up my sleeve, which I will share here with you.  For starters, I like to ease the burden of buying gifts for other people’s kids by keeping a stash ready to give in my garage. It's not that I don’t enjoy shopping for children, but spending two hours in the Ark with one or more of my own rowdy offspring is something I can muster the patience for only once or twice a year. Instead of using those hours to chant “we’re not shopping for you now, we’re shopping for <insert birthday name here>” seven thousand times, I would prefer to weed oxalis out of the yard while my kids throw mud at each other or give them handfuls of dried beans to juggle in the kitchen while I attempt to cook dinner.