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Welcome to Arras Theme!
Arras Theme is a WordPress theme designed for news or review sites with lots of customisable features.
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Recent Posts
- Psaltery & Lyre’s New Site
- 123 Psaltery & Lyre: “Agricola Dreams of Flying” by J. Rose Lara
- 122 Psaltery & Lyre: “Communion: a love poem (a villanelle)” by Rachel Bollinger
- Book Review: Philip Metres’s Sand Opera
- 121 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Horsehead Nebula”
- Book Review: Monica Ong’s Silent Anatomies
- 120 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Return, pt. III” and “Gaia”
- Book Review: Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
- Book Review: Matthea Harvey, If the Tabloids Are True What Are You?
- Book Review: LoterÃa Cards and Fortune Poems: A Book of Lives
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Tag Cloud
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family Archive
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20 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Half a Church
Posted on February 19, 2012 | 60 CommentsI have brought my daughter, dressed up and nervous with anticipation, gift in hand, to a birthday party where the boys will decide what games to play and what the rules will be. . . -
Dog Heaven
Posted on January 26, 2012 | 8 Comments. You know how we all imagine that 'dog heaven' will be a place where dogs get to do what dogs like, like ride in cars with their heads hanging out the window or run through meadows chasing balls and sticks? Somehow, 'Mormon heaven' has never sounded like 'Claire heaven' to me. -
Roller Coaster
Posted on January 5, 2012 | 2 CommentsA year ago, I was living in a daze. I was spending most nights curled up against my 11 year old daughter's back as she lay on her side in her bed, willing her pain to dissipate, even hoping to absorb it myself. -
Santa and I
Posted on December 22, 2011 | 7 CommentsThe year I turned four or five, we drove to my grandparents in central Wisconsin for Christmas. Actually, we did this for most years of my early childhood- until I was 8 or so and we moved to Florida. Making the 1100 mile […] -
The Feast of St. Francis
Posted on November 10, 2011 | 7 CommentsThis year, our family observed General Conference by attending the local Episcopal church. -
Family Ties
Posted on October 27, 2011 | 5 CommentsWhere is the line between serving your family and loosing yourself in it? -
Assertiveness Training
Posted on September 29, 2011 | 14 CommentsI knew that even small acts of assertiveness would be important. Maybe it didn't change the world but for that individual woman, it was world-changing. -
The Genetics of Love
Posted on September 28, 2011 | 16 CommentsGuest Post from Whoa-man as part of the The Exponent and Doves and Serpents swap. Hi, I am Whoa-man from Exponent. My husband and I are both PhD students trying to figure out equally-shared parenting with our 18 month old. When I heard about the […] -
Finding Peace
Posted on September 22, 2011 | 4 CommentsForgiveness. As babies and young children, we can’t help but forgive those that wrong us. We have no choice…. we are too dependent. But somehow along the path to adulthood (and independence) we lose that. Maybe rightly so- I think there […] -
Crash Test
Posted on September 1, 2011 | 2 CommentsThe thought of any inexperienced driver in charge of a 4,000 pound machine makes me very nervous, but anticipating my own flesh-and-blood inexperienced driver sends me almost into a panic. -
Window to Utopia
Posted on August 11, 2011 | 6 CommentsWhat would heaven be like, for a teenager? -
The Tree of Life
Posted on August 5, 2011 | 6 CommentsThe Tree of Life begins with a quotation from The Book of Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth . . . What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the […] -
The Nursery Window
Posted on August 4, 2011 | 2 Comments"Long ago," he said, "I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me, so I stayed away for moons and moons and moons, and then flew back; but the window was barred, for mother had forgotten all about me, and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed." -
We Are Pioneers
Posted on July 28, 2011 | 4 CommentsAs I was telling my Kindergartner earlier this month that we're all pioneers in some way. Whenever we stand up for what we believe in or do something because we know inside it's a good thing to do, we are pioneers. -
The Gluttonous Baby
Posted on July 21, 2011 | 10 CommentsFor as long as humans have made objects, there have been baby dolls. It’s an almost universal phenomenon that young children play with dolls. Especially if they have younger siblings or see babies being taken care of in their daily life, little […] -
Operation Stop Arm
Posted on July 15, 2011 | 4 CommentsMy neighbor Sheri and I watched motorists pass our children's school bus for years. We took video, called the police, reported tag numbers, complained to the public school department of transportation, pleaded with the PTA for attention to this matter. We were met with "there is nothing we can do" around every single corner. -
Healing Waters
Posted on July 10, 2011 | 6 Comments“You’ll only be baptized once in your life, so it is a very special experience,” my grandmother said, speaking at my eight year old daughter’s baptism last week. After her talk concluded, we made our way down the hallway to the baptismal font and while […] -
Independence Day
Posted on July 4, 2011 | 4 CommentsBecoming a citizen was a long, expensive process for my husband. I can't imagine how difficult it was for those people from Burkina Faso, Serbia, Jamaica, Colombia, Cambodia that we shared that day with at the immigration office. -
Patriarchs I Have Known and Loved
Posted on June 26, 2011 | 8 CommentsMy father grew up in a troubled home, poor as coal dust. A child of the depression and of divorce, he lined his broken-soled shoes with newsprint. As a child, he learned to hustle, earning nickels at the ballpark any night he could. There was […] -
I Love the Smell of K-Y Warming Jelly ® in the Morning, or, Marital Apocalypse Delayed
Posted on June 10, 2011 | 8 CommentsAlthough best known for “The Seventh Seal” and other serious “art house” films, I suggest Ingmar Bergman’s best work is his delightful “Smiles of a Summer Night.” Whether you watch it as a momentary diversion from a sweltering evening this summer or view it as […] -
The Illusion of Equality
Posted on May 22, 2011 | 21 CommentsToday, a guest post from Helen. I read a review of Rebecca Asher’s book the week it came out in print, and decided to order it straight away. One of the most exciting things was reading a book written right now, talking about things happening […] -
Fff… family
Posted on April 19, 2011 | No CommentsI just read this today and loved it: http://www.literarymama.com/columns/perfectlynormal/archives/2011/ffffamily.html A great reminder that not all families look alike (which clearly we should not need reminding) and that for some people, celebrations that revolve around families are not celebrations at all. -
Find Your Tribe
Posted on April 14, 2011 | 4 CommentsOver a decade ago I read this article in Mothering Magazine about a woman who is far from family and friends and meets up with another woman to share household projects and childcare over the course of a day several times a week, alternating households. […] -
Kids and Calamities
Posted on March 31, 2011 | 12 CommentsI watched the Twin Towers fall on TV, my oldest child safely ensconced in her kindergarten class. My toddler was playing with blocks nearby…. building towers and knocking them down. “Mommy, why does your face look like this?” she asked, mimicking my […] -
Parallel Journeys
Posted on March 24, 2011 | 20 CommentsBy Claudia On my personal blog, I am known as “The Faithful Dissident.” For the past three years, I’ve been hiding behind that alias. Afraid of what, I’m not exactly sure, but some of my experiences during the past yearhave made me realize that I’m […] -
“Do you want to end up living under a bridge?”
Posted on March 17, 2011 | 10 CommentsThis is, reportedly, what my daughter’s second grade teacher asked her class during a fit of frustration over their less-than-enthusiastic preparation for the looming standardized testing. Several other parents and I were concerned, but felt trapped in the status quo and didn’t really see […] -
Talents: Addition and Multiplication
Posted on March 10, 2011 | 9 CommentsThis is a guest post from a favorite reader and commenter, Corktree. It may sound simplistic (or just serving of my purpose), but I’ve always read the parable of the talents to mean actual talents. It’s just easy to see how one might be […] -
Celebrating the Man As Well As His Cause
Posted on March 3, 2011 | 13 CommentsA guest post from a reader, Debra. Names matter. They do. My life experience has taught me this. Names are important as they are references — signs – that direct us to meaning, and often to a particular point in time – in history. In […] -
American Beauty
Posted on February 25, 2011 | 13 CommentsRecently ‘Rogue Cinema’ took a foray into the dark world of David Lynch’s films, to explore his disturbing presentations of the decay of the body and inherited contortions of the mind. For all of you who joined me on that journey: thanks. It was a […] -
Hate
Posted on February 24, 2011 | 7 CommentsAs an antidote to all the love around here lately, I thought I’d offer up a little bit of good old-fashioned hate. I grew up in a very low key household where strong feelings didn’t really have a place. My typical toddler tantrums were […] -
Adam-God Theory
Posted on February 19, 2011 | 11 CommentsWhat we believe truly matters. Most of what we believe has its roots in what we were taught as children by people who we once rightfully worshipped as demi-gods; [...] These are the source of our own private Adam-God Theory. -
Leaving
Posted on February 12, 2011 | 33 CommentsI'm in the process of choosing to leave. I'm almost there. There's only a consideration of the cost. -
You can’t have two fun parents. That’s a carnival.
Posted on January 19, 2011 | 11 CommentsI love the show Modern Family. When it first started, I got some chain emails about how negative the show was and how we (Mormons?, “God-fearing people”?) should email ABC and tell them we were boycotting it and blah blah blah. Well, nothing piques my […] -
The Spirit of the Beehive
Posted on January 14, 2011 | 6 CommentsWho could ever draw the lines that would separate the material world and the worlds of the imagination? For children, these worlds flow into each other very easily: a merging that is the subject of the Spanish-language film El espÃritu de la colmena (1973). Victor […] -
What are we aiming for?
Posted on January 5, 2011 | 9 CommentsHave you ever written a family mission statement? I’m not big on self-help books (with the exception of the mountain of parenting books I read when my kids were babies/toddlers/pre-schoolers). It’s not that I don’t think I need help because I do, of course. (That […] -
Ringing in the New Year
Posted on December 29, 2010 | 16 CommentsI’m kind of a New Year’s Eve Scrooge. I’ve never cared much for ringing in the new year with anything other than what I usually do. I don’t like to get dressed up and I don’t like black eyed peas. And I especially don’t like […] -
I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon
Posted on December 5, 2010 | 15 CommentsOr under the sea. Or the jungle... at least, not permanently. -
A Christmas Tale
Posted on November 26, 2010 | 23 CommentsSome films leave you with a feeling that you have experienced something solid and illuminating that will stay with you. A Christmas Tale (released in 2008), with its dream cast, rich characters and blend of humor and big ideas, is such a film for me. Every time I watch it, I like it more and I'm even more amazed by the strange alchemy Desplechin uses to create his moving, joyful, but unsentimental family drama. -
Home for the Holidays
Posted on November 24, 2010 | 8 Comments“Nobody means what they say on Thanksgiving, Mom. That’s what the holiday is all about. Torture.” – Claudia I know I’m not supposed to talk about movies on Knit Together. That’s Andy’s job over at Rogue Cinema. (Hopefully they don’t fire me . . .) […] -
Urban Camping Part II
Posted on October 20, 2010 | 13 CommentsMy husband had just offered me the deal of the century: one month, completely kid-free, so that I could focus all my attention and energy on writing my dissertation proposal. Of course I took him up on his offer ... -
Anticipation
Posted on October 14, 2010 | 9 CommentsWe were on our way to church as a family, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for everyone to share in the 'lunch experience." So I was a bit disappointed when no one was waiting at the I-20 exit ramp like I anticipated. -
Urban Camping Part I
Posted on October 13, 2010 | 34 CommentsMy husband and I have tried lots of different divisions of parental responsibilities over almost 14 years. When we started out, he was a student and I was a teacher, so I was the primary breadwinner. He was responsible for getting Kennedy (our […] -
Around the Dinner Table: What’s a family?
Posted on October 6, 2010 | 28 CommentsWhile digging through the pile of papers in my seven-year-old’s backpack, I came across a copy of a page from the district reading curriculum that includes the weekly spelling words and a couple of ‘Guiding Questions’ for parents to talk to their kids about at […]