here we are

Water must boil to purify. I wrote it down a month ago in my planner, on a ripped page tattooed with coffee spots and toddler scribbles. The weather was turning, and 2020 was feeling particularly menacing – the kind of rude you don’t bother correcting because these days especially, breath is not for wasting. There […]

pretend design blog | mudroom

mudroom

Eight months ago we bought a house and I resolved to take you on the renovation ride via blog. You didn’t know this because a week after moving, COVID hit, homeschool began, and a variation of this post sat unpublished in my drafts until now. Projects ensued (so many projects), and as I directed and […]

on big things & little things

The older girls know how babies are made. We told them last summer while the twins were napping, on the deck with a book and some lemonade. It was easy, a mid-July list of capitols to memorize. They asked questions, we answered, the world kept turning. Real words and no surprises, because bus talk breeds […]

Pandemic

“When will it be over?” she asks between bites. The burgers took longer than expected. Fireflies blink, cicadas croon. In the glare of the deck lights, her shampooed head is a crystal ball doused in moonlight. It’s nearly nine, and girlfriend sits with her knees pulled high beneath her nightgown, relishing. If she chews slowly, […]

Self-Reminder

Save a few bumps and bruises, my brief emergence from the world of academic writing finds me relatively unscathed. The new literary trek is dull and sterile, but alas, grad school beckons. Between annotations and papers, discussions and essays, emails and presentations, this swift hello is a kept promise to not let the ocean of […]