parent life

Since Friday, I've been thinking about the premiere of Downton Abbey. As Masterpiece Theater classic television goes, it is the best of high period drama. It is also one of my guilty indulgences. When I watch it, I sometimes think of what it would be like to be Elizabeth McGovern's character and live out my days leisurely with servants to do all of the things I scream at my kids to do. I imagine dressing for a dinner that someone else cooks, on dishes I’ll never have to wash

Last Sunday was soup beans and cornbread night in our house. It was 60s out in May in the South, so it was soup weather. And what good is soup without cornbread, right? There was a time when I wasn't exactly proud of telling anyone that we regularly ate soup beans. I mean it is a reminder of my family’s poor upbringing. It’s rural Kentucky food. It’s mountain food. It’s not the food that anyone is going to put on the menu at a fine dining restaurant, but everyone has seen on