I entered parenthood with a great deal of ambivalence. I never was a fan of babies, and I had a love/hate relationship with children. The love part was that I know they are the future: teach them well and bla-bla-bla. The hate part was the irrationality, the ungratefulness, the noise… My only real experience withContinue reading “How’s that ambivalence coming along?”
Tag Archives: Joy
It’s been a summer
School starts today. Yesterday, I took my boys for one last “hoorah” to our favorite little theme park, amid a million other little errands. I got them a frozen treat (a blue slushy is for one, strawberry ice cream cone for the other). I asked, “So what was the highlight of your summer?” And inContinue reading “It’s been a summer”
Negotiation
Vacations are never an easy time at Casa Fields. The two week winter break back in February, although punctuated by a brief period of respite for me personally, was overshadowed by an uncomfortable, nagging unpleasant attitude of negotiation. I’m not a haggler. I don’t care about making a deal. The sooner a transaction is overContinue reading “Negotiation”
An Honored Guest
I got some pushback from a listener about something I’ve been saying in the podcast. It wasn’t a criticism, per se, but you know me. Once I start overthinking something, I can’t let it go. The listener’s sticking point was that she doesn’t like it when I say we should “treat ourselves like an honoredContinue reading “An Honored Guest”
Joy and the Oddballs
So, we need to recap here for a sec, since I have been a little bit all over the place over the last few days. I’ve been on a warpath lately: I want to start living an exciting life of expectancy and miracles again, the kind my husband and I used to live before weContinue reading “Joy and the Oddballs”
A Sneaky Little Thing Called Joy
Of course, I’m still over here ruminating on the subject of joy. Incidentally, I probably shouldn’t have used the word ruminating in the previous sentence, but it does allow me to show off something interesting I learned about psychology this week: Rumination on meta-thoughts, that is, thoughts about our thoughts is found more frequently inContinue reading “A Sneaky Little Thing Called Joy”
You can’t fake joy
So…day 2 of trying to serve my family with joy was not so great. Firstly, my youngest is in a phase where he is waking up again at 5:00AM. Now that the two boys are sharing a room, this means my eldest is also waking up at 5:00AM. Only yesterday morning, my eldest was theContinue reading “You can’t fake joy”
I want more of that.
If you thought that with a title like that this article would be about getting off the Hedonic Treadmill…well, it means that you know me very very well. However, that is not what we are talking about today. Since January 1, I have been writing a blog in French. It was very much out ofContinue reading “I want more of that.”
The Ideal Life Round-Up: Gravitas
Gravitas, you silly creature. Gravitas, as I went into detail about in an article earlier this year, is a word to describe what I imagine growing up might look like. This desire to grow-up is something that has been part of me for as long as I can remember. I have yet to grow up.Continue reading “The Ideal Life Round-Up: Gravitas”
Gift Giving Gone Awry
A while back, I wrote a series about gift-giving, and some characteristics to consider about the gift-receiver as we began the holiday season. I called them “Gift-Receiver Templates” (I’ll put links to the articles at the end, if you’re interested.) Well. Let’s put this anecdote into the “I should have known better” category, shall we?Continue reading “Gift Giving Gone Awry”
Sing With Your Feet 