This is my eleventh summer in Virginia, but I’m still surprised at how things grow in abundance. Today I noticed a sprout in the door frame. The door frame! As I studied it, I noticed another one nearby in the crack of the deck floor. Ah! “Anything will grow well in this Virginia humidity,” I thought. After all, the conditions for growth are all here: abundant seeds, moisture, and heat.

My summer is spent poolside, participating in our neighborhood swim team. Our team is developmental, which means even children who don’t know how to swim strokes are allowed to join. Over the season, their strokes refine and improve. To me, breaststroke is especially descriptive of the changes. Once the arm pull and frog kick movements are mastered, some children repeat this sequence rapidly. They move their arms and legs as quickly as they can while following proper form.

“While we’re out of town,” my neighbor kindly asked, “will you please come empty our dehumidifier?” During the hot and humid Virginia summer, their basement becomes moldy. The dehumidifier decreases the moisture. Their front door is only steps away from mine, so it wasn’t a big ask. She warned, “you might need to go over more frequently if it is rainy.” As it turns out, during their two week vacation, we had daily summer rainstorms.

“How can I get my child to become a better writer?” is a question I’ve heard repeatedly. One thing that works for me is finding my own pleasure in writing. Reading “First you Write a Sentence” by Joe Moran has increased my enthusiasm and motivation to write well. While on an afternoon walk with a friend, the rain unexpectedly started in on us. I thought of Moran’s descriptions of the onomatopoeia of the rain vocabulary, encouraging his readers to be more precise with their words.

It’s that time of year–cramming, scrambling, weeping and wailing–we are preparing for AP tests. Among the stress and frustration, my son made me laugh when he shared this innocent observation: “I’ve always imagined the bubble sheet to be a river.” He continued explaining, “I want to try to block the river with the bubble choices and create a wall to stop the water.” He rejoiced in finally meeting his goal with this bubble sheet!

Here are a few books we’ve been enjoying from our local library. When Stars Are Scattered In addition to having a paper copy, we listened to the award-winning audio for this moving graphic novel. What a fantastic collaboration by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed! Highly Recommend. Milloo’s Mind This is a delightful story about the opportunity to attend school. The illustrations were fantastic and the true story very inspiring. Tricking the Tallyman As we’ve been using the Census for our family history studies, my son has been more interested in details about the census.

Witty and clever, I love this book about being a mother within the Jewish faith. Her main theme is that anyone can “adapt Jewish tricks for raising flexible, quick-thinking, literate, open-minded kids.” I love her confidence! Her writing is sprinkled with Yiddish vocabulary, such as vontz: “the kid may become an egocentric little vontz (Yiddish for bedbug, an excellent term for an annoying person).” “Mothers have power." Ingall emphasizes the value of the role, “Women tend to be more religious than men (which is why Judaism, a largely home-based faith, has been not only practiced but also transmitted by women).

While at the orthodontist with my son, I was browsing the December 2022 Northern Virginia Magazine. An article about college admissions caught my eye. I appreciated the theme of the article: consider many options for college and don’t be discouraged if you get rejected. This quote was one I really agreed with: The pressure-packed college admissions process can take away from the joys of high school if students and their parents or guardians get wrapped up in being accepted at a handful of extremely selective schools.

While reviewing a list of Spanish reflexive verbs this morning, my teenage son was curious to learn more about one verb: deshacerse. This verb means “undo” and “get rid of.” We flipped open the “501 Spanish Verbs” to review the conjugation and look at some examples. We were both surprised by the final example: el deshechizo: breaking off a magic spell “Why would they have a word for something that doesn’t even exist?

We recently took an extended trip to México’s Yucatán Peninsula. Here are some of the things that surprised and delighted us.

1. Abundance of Churches The cities we visited were vestiges of Spanish colonization. Each had a main cathedral with a plaza. But there were lots of Catholic churches in each city. We had an Airbnb directly across from the San Roman Cathedral in Campeche. With their doors open during the worship services, we could easily hear the prayers and singing.