Jennifer Briggs

Amy had exactly forty-eight hours between the end of sleep-away camp and when Tom, Sarah’s favorite taxi driver, drove us to the airport to fly to Venice. One thing we did well was to arrange things so we could check in to our Airbnb right away. Fortunately, it has air conditioning since we are in… Read more »

A week ago, Sarah and I dropped Amy off for a week of sleep-away camp with her bestie. They were going to be counselors-in-training for the first time. This was also Amy’s first sleep-away camp experience without wearing a scoliosis brace, without worrying about it getting wet or when to take it off before activities…. Read more »

With a couple of days at home to do many loads of laundry (and order progressive glasses for me because I suddenly started needing to wear my glasses half-way down my nose in the morning before I got my contacts in), we got ourselves unpacked and repacked, ready to enjoy some days at our mountain… Read more »

After the 1p36 conference, we enjoyed some days of glorious weather in Bellevue and Seattle, seeing friends, eating pizza and ice cream, taking the ferry to Bainbridge island, and going to the top of the Space Needle. As I told Amy, my amusement park rides are the monorail and the Space Needle. I don’t need… Read more »

After driving to Detroit for some Detroit-style pizza at Grandma Bob’s and some pancakes the size of dinner plates at the Hudson cafe, we flew to Seattle to be ready for the 1p36 conference. This was the first year we arrived the day before the conference started, and it was glorious to be so relaxed… Read more »

One night at bedtime, Sarah said, “I love you, Granddad in spirit.” I responded, “I love you, Sarah in the flesh.” That tickled her funny bone and has become the theme for the week. She often tells me, “I love you, mom in the flesh.” Speaking of bedtime, I successfully shifted to sleeping on a… Read more »

A week ago, Sarah and I dropped Amy off for an hour of kitten snuggles at Cats N’At while Sarah checked in for her sleep-away music camp at the Woodlands. Amy was in absolute heaven with a tiny black kitten on her lap and countless cats and kittens roaming around. Sarah was excited to settle… Read more »

Lately, I have had times of feeling unmotivated, unenthused, and as if there is nothing I can think of that I want to do with my time. I think this is my grief or sensory overload speaking so I’m holding it gently. Riding the bus to and from Sarah’s camp for two weeks was an… Read more »

Amy is officially a rising sophomore! Freedom! She worked extra hard in the last couple weeks, as with every trimester finale with projects, papers, and presentations galore. She loves her school, but she is excited to have time to catch up on sleep and read books for fun. Sarah completed her first week of camp… Read more »

It’s 5:45 A.M. You scream about wet socks. No, crayons don’t go in the dryer. It’s 9:30 P.M. You try to sleep. Every fifteen minutes, you tell us that your favorite color is yellow. It’s 7:30 A.M I hurry you along. You pause to photograph every bus. It’s 12:30 P.M. I sit with you as… Read more »