Our recent cold snap has Alex fretting (rightfully so) about frozen pipes. The Kid and I are instructed to leave cabinet doors open and faucets dripping. We have some space heaters pointed just so at pipes on exterior walls and if Alex gets up to pee in the middle of the night, he flushes the … Continue reading
Author Archives: welderbeth
“Is He Dead?”: Teaching Kids Inclusion
One of the gifts that The Baby’s developmental delays gives us is that he doesn’t care what people think about him. Once, I had him in a backpack and The Kid and I were ordering snow cones. The Baby leaned over and emptied his stomach of all the water I had just painstakingly given him. … Continue reading
My 2022 Guide to Books
My sister and I have alot of things in common. Our taste in books is not one of them. Recently, she was telling me that she wanted to read alot in 2022 and asked for my recommendations. Knowing that she liked historical fiction, I asked her if she would read a book set in historical … Continue reading
A Holy Community
I’ve been in Adult ESL for 11 years now. (That’s English as a Second Language, not Extra Sensory Perception, as I sometimes get.) I started as the front line office person for a bustling non-profit that had set up shop in the middle of the highest densely populated area of Dallas, right where all the … Continue reading
I Can’t Put It Back
We got a Christmas tree last year. Up to that point, I had avoided having a tree by using a cloth tree that I sewed that hangs on the wall. After 6 years, the Kid finally convinced me that we needed like a tree tree and not something that I whipped up on my cheap … Continue reading
Dear School Board
Many of you may know that school boards across America are being inundated with outraged parents that their children have access to a book that shows a picture of a child with two mommies (or whatever the fuck). Women are screaming at school board members about Critical Race Theory without knowing what it even really … Continue reading
Shots Fired
In March 2020, the world stopped. Literally. I kept trying to explain to The Kid that this was a historical event- something he would tell his grandkids about- but I don’t know that he believed me. There was so much fear in those early days. Months later, I saw a video on instagram that depicted … Continue reading
Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Parenting Edition
In my Kinesio class in college, there was a yoga portion and a classroom portion. Apparently, yoga is very popular among defensive linemen so I’d do my planks next to the Fightin’ Texas Aggies’ defensive tackle, who were surprisingly quite flexible. Although I’d been in Texas public schools my entire life, I found the classroom … Continue reading
Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Like a Virgin
Alex and I were both virgins when we got married. In a fact that will surprise no one, I had never even come close to having sex. I made one boyfriend wait almost a year before kissing him and he still asked me to marry him (this was the fiancee before Alex if you’re trying … Continue reading
Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Talk Consent to Me
TW: sexual assault In high school, there was a foreign exchange student from Hong Kong. Cute, little ole’ racist me was horrified that Joe Li didn’t have flip-flops (don’t all Asians wear flip flops, hyuck hyuck?) so I bought him a pair. Joe Li fell instantly and madly in love with this strange white girl … Continue reading