Writer for Young Adults
Well, things got busy. We welcomed a new addition to our family, muscled through some major house infestation issues (with a five-week-old! super fun), and started preschool. And now *cough* it's December. Whoops. Still, I've managed to scrape out some precious reading time while nursing little Junebug, though not nearly as much as I did… Continue reading What to Read While Breastfeeding: A Primer
A few weeks ago I learned that one of my high school English teachers had passed away at age 55. Initially I was shocked; classmates and I exchanged texts and Facebook messages, trying to make sense of this sudden, unexpected loss. Then, just as quickly, the world moved on. I kept meaning to write something… Continue reading In Memoriam
This week over at Willow and Thatch, I'm reviewing the American Girl movies for anyone interested in family-friendly period films. You could say that the American Girl dolls and books were one of my first introductions to history when I was growing up, so this post holds a special place in my heart. You can… Continue reading Guest Post: American Girl Series
A few nights ago, B finished dinner early, but she wasn't quite ready for bed. So we sat on the floor of our living room in front of the Christmas tree, classical radio playing softly in the background, and read through Peter Spier's Christmas!, one of my favorite childhood books. There are no words, only… Continue reading Slow Fall
Like many people, I have a tendency to rush around trying to pack things in, one after the other. A typical weekday might include a full day of teaching, an hour of work on a freelance assignment, a trip to the gym where I fit in 40 minutes of reading (God bless the elliptical), some… Continue reading Slowing Down
Proust had his madeleines. Me? I have Fiddler on the Roof. Specifically, the original film soundtrack on vinyl, which I put on last week just for fun, only to be emotionally transported back to high school at Tevye's first words. See, I was an odd duck in high school. Convinced that I had been born in the wrong… Continue reading Remembrance of Records Past
For a long time I haven't known what to do with this space. As you've probably noticed, I haven't featured a recipe in quite some time, and my posting is sparse. Partially this is due to the amount of time it takes me to settle into a new school year and a new set of… Continue reading Transitions
As evidenced by my various afternoon adventures, I love visiting historic sites. I will drag Josh to living history museums just to pretend I'm living in colonial New England (more on that soon). When my parents called to say they were planning a weekend in upstate New York, and that they hoped to visit some… Continue reading Research comes from the unlikeliest of places
A few days ago, I started thinking about the difficulties of looking at the past through rose-colored glasses. Let's face it: life without electricity, equal voting rights, or antibiotics would be way harder. To explore this point further, let's look at life without two rather nice appliances (albeit just for the two weeks that we… Continue reading Hand wash only (II)
It's easy to wax nostalgic about the "good old days," that halcyon golden age when kids didn't do drugs or drink underage, and life was simpler, without cell phones and social media complicating things. (Yes, I'm guilty of this!) There are a few things wrong with this kind of thinking, though: first, the "good old… Continue reading Hand wash only (I)
Abby Murphy 