The negotiations went pretty quickly. I’d had total control of the wedding plans – girls in peach lace, cheesecake dessert, gerbera daisies for the tables – so it seemed fair that my dream of an exotic, tropical honeymoon should perhaps take a back seat to his dream of flying his 1974 single-engine Citabria…
Disneyland: Finding Magic and Wonder
With one of my daughters busy with summer internships and getting ready to go off to college in just a month, we weren’t able to plan any family vacation time this year — which means I’ve been on a mission to escape the stresses of the world in small summery chunks. This week it…
Hiking the Coyote Hills in the Bay Area Can Give You Hope
Sometimes, with all the heartache and ugly in the world, we need to escape – just to have the energy to come back to center, to that place of light. So yesterday, to get away from Facebook and the news which was minute-by-minute coverage of evil and ugly, we put on our hiking shoes and…
Flashback Friday: Summer in Greece, 2014
Two years ago, we packed for a month-long trip abroad, with two teenage girls. We spent one week in London, and three weeks in Greece, the homeland of all my ancestors. The trip was more inspiring than I could have hoped for and harder than I could have imagined. When we returned, I tried to…
In search of peace on Rt. 88
When you need to find respite — to find that place of calm — Rt. 88 through gold country California, might just be the road to take you there. On this two-lane country road, expansive, golden fields dotted with dark green oaks, wind through Jackson and then Pioneer. The road climbs up into forests of…
HOME: Life is a Blur Sometimes
I was just going through the pictures on my camera when this one of our dog, Toby, caught my eye. This is what happens when we’re home in the mountains — Toby becomes a puppy again, tearing after jackrabbits, deer, and squirrels. He becomes a blur, not unlike life when you’re raising two teens.
How to Promote a Growth Mindset, One Mistake After Another
The article in New York Magazine (http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/06/how-kids-get-failure-mindsets.html) on the latest research about what parents do when they operate from a “growth mindset” regarding their children’s learning – and what messages kids get about their abilities — struck a chord and a nerve with me. As a teacher, I expect all my kids to learn from…
College Readiness: Sometimes it takes a little push.
I hear stories of kids chomping at the bit to get away from home, running to college as if their lives depend on it. Kids who are simply bubbling with excitement and parents who are struggling to let go. So much is written about parents who are worried about letting go but whose kids…
On this day of darkness, when words fail . . .
I am utterly and heartbrokenly speechless about the violence this week. There are no words that fit the day, that can deal with this darkness. How do we address both the horrific police brutality that we’ve seen day after day and the tragic, awful shooting of peaceful police officers in Dallas? What I do know is…
Finding Dory: A look into the deep, blue sea of life with a disability
*Spoiler Alert: Ok, so I might give away a bunch of plot, but I don’t think it changes the film viewing, or the film’s importance. My husband and I finally saw Finding Dory – and what’s not to love about it? It’s funny, adventurous, and sweet. We found ourselves chuckling at the grumbly Septopus and…
Letter to my daughter on Leaps of Faith (or thoughts on jumping into College)
*In Hawaii, as a surfing first-timer, the waves you rode were tiny but your courage matched those surfers tackling 15 foot swells. In case you didn’t know this: At 27, I was laid off of a job where my colleagues had become family, and I was heartbroken. Within days, jobless, I’d decided to move across…
Barbara Ganias Comstock 