Archive for 'The Rockwood Files' Category
The Rockwood Files: Mom’s Letter to Santa
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 Dear Santa, I’m nearly exhausted this time of year so I can only imagine how worn out you must be as you gear up for your magical trip around the world. Even with help from all those elves, you must feel a lot of pressure this [...]
The Rockwood Files: Bright lights, new city
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 When Tom and I took our honeymoon more than a decade ago, we were mostly broke and went to a neighboring town 45 minutes away. Two days into the trip, we both came down with the flu. We always said that one day we’d take another [...]
The Rockwood Files: One Decade Later
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 I just had a very, very big birthday. And I’ll be the first to admit that it’s freaking me out. My firstborn just turned 10. As in 10-years-old. Double digits. This is huge. Staring my own middle age in the face doesn’t seem nearly as tough [...]
The Rockwood Files: A few of my favorite things
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 I love the week after Thanksgiving. We’re still fat and happy from an inappropriately sized meal, and it’s not close enough to Christmas to start panicking about getting everything done in time. But once that week has passed, the Christmas crunch begins and it feels like [...]
The Rockwood Files: An ongoing count
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 When I was growing up, our little church congregation sang a handful of favorite hymns over and over again. And the one that replays in my mind most during November is an instruction as much as it is a song — “Count Your Blessings.” The lyrics [...]
The Rockwood Files: Toy talk
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 I felt like a kid again this morning. Thick toy circulars cascaded out of the Sunday morning newspaper, and the kids and I eagerly snatched them and started leafing through the glossy pages. You know the holidays are close when toy catalogs start coming. When I [...]
The Rockwood Files: A dose of reality
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 I read an article this week that made me rethink a secret I’ve kept for 10 years. My closest friends know but it’s not something I’ve ever written about – for a lot of reasons. Ten years ago I wrote a column about the devastating loss [...]
The Rockwood Files: Wearing parent goggles
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 The first time I saw the movie Footloose, I was 11 years old. It was 1984, and I was in the fifth grade. My best friend had her first major crush on a boy named John. I wanted Calvin Klein Jeans more than anything else in [...]
The Rockwood Files: The Sting of Fear
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 Fear is a funny thing. It divides people into distinct groups – the “Hey let’s go to the haunted house” group and the “There’s no way I’m going in there group.” With Halloween fast approaching, it’s good to know what group you’re in and why. On [...]
The Rockwood Files: Lessons from a slow poke
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 Last week the mess on my desk reached the tipping point. I couldn’t take it another minute. So I dove into the stacks of papers, determined to get better organized. During the whirlwind cleaning, I flipped through a spiral notebook I’ve been using to write my [...]
The Rockwood Files: To have and to hold — for 24 months
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 Imagine if wedding vows sounded more like this: “I, prospective bride, do take you, chosen spouse, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, or for a period not to exceed 24 months, at which time the interested parties [...]
The Rockwood Files: Living in Limbo
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 When my parents retired and moved to our town a few weeks ago, the plan was to move them into a new condo being built just a couple blocks away from our house. But uncooperative weather and other construction delays wouldn’t let that happen. The condo [...]
The Rockwood Files: The lizard who ate Orlando
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 Sometimes the best thing you can do for your work is get away from it. I know this because I’m back from a week’s vacation which took me to sunny Florida and then a short cruise to the balmy Bahamas. Even though I’m up to my [...]
The Rockwood Files: You make me feel like dancin’
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 There are only two types of people – people who like to dance and people who would rather have their eyebrows removed with a rotary sander. Particularly for men, dancing or not dancing is almost a defining characteristic. “Hi. My name is Joe. I’m a Caucasian [...]
The Rockwood Files: Dirty little homework secret
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 I’m keeping a dirty little secret from the kids. Sometimes when I’m checking over their homework, I pretend to go to the bathroom or go check something that’s on the stove (even though I rarely cook). While I’m away, I use my iPhone to Google whatever [...]
The Rockwood Files: Heart of the matter
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 I was expecting to be sad when I closed the door on my old room. Just as I anticipated, memories flashed through my mind as I looked around one last time – jumping up and down on the yellow canopy bed when I was a little [...]
The Rockwood Files: “Excuse me, do you speak Pokemon?”
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 When my kids first started school, I hoped that one day they’d learn a second language, and now they have. But they didn’t learn it in the classroom or from after-school tutors. They learned it at recess and lunchtime and during the bus ride home. And [...]
The Rockwood Files: Pow! Right in the kisser.
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 I got a phone call a few weeks ago when 4-year-old Kate was at a gymnastics day camp. The teacher told me there’d been an accident but then quickly added that Kate was okay. I was grateful for the second half of that sentence because my [...]
The Rockwood Files: The back-to-school quiet zone
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 A calm settled over the house this morning at 7:45 a.m. It hasn’t been this quiet here since early June. I can hear the hum of the refrigerator and the tap-tap-tap of the dog’s toenails on the wood floor. Our dog, E.J., is not enjoying the [...]
The Rockwood Files: Verbal filter failure
By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 Tucked deep inside the human brain is a part of the anatomy yet to be officially documented by modern science. It’s a small, round filter – invisible to even the most powerful microscope. But it’s there. And it’s vitally important for the operation of a civilized [...]