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Tropic of Mom: Life at Latitude 26

• Moved in the stillness

  Number of comments: 9
  
  
  After dinner, I looked out the window. The sun had dipped below the horizon until all that was left of it were pink and orange streaks making arcs and bubbles in the sky.
  
  Without saying a word to my family, I passed through the doorway, crossed [...]
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• Reach for the stars -- if you don't make it, at least you might get a lamp painted

  Number of comments: 11
  Recently, I broke down and told my husband I want to move.
  
  Yes, I mean I literally broke down. I had a weak moment. Probably caused by too little sleep and too much stress. And possibly a little wine.
  
  "I can't live this way," is something I think' [...]
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• Different vs. better: When do you give other parents the benefit of the doubt?

  Number of comments: 7
  I worked as an editor for a while before starting my own (failed) magazine, writing a book and then staying home to take care of the Man-Cub. I learned that when editing, changing something a writer has written doesn't always make the piece better -- sometimes, it's just different. And [...]
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• Weekend by numbers: Friends and food

  Number of comments: 7
  1.5: Years since my husband and I had a date. Yeah, really.
  
  2: Friends who came in from out of town we got to hang out with.
  
  
  
  5: Attempts the Junebug made to make his peas disappear. (Disney magic.)
  
  
  
  42: Homemade [...]
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• On monkeys in hospitals and giving birth to a third child

  Number of comments: 5
  This week, we had to deal with an unexpected health crisis.
  
  
  
  I took the Junebug to visit my husband in the hospital, and he sweetly snuggled with him on the bed.
  
  But later, when I took the Junebug and the Man-cub together to visit their [...]
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• Weekend by numbers: Ups and downs

  Number of comments: 6
  1: Missed girls' night out
  
  1: Day of cooking
  
  2: Days of cleaning
  
  2: Days of feeling blah
  
  But....
  
  1: Gym membership I signed up for
  
  2: Days of dreaming about home improvements
  
  2: Boys being brothers
  
  
  
  [...]
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• Reverse psychology gone wrong

  Number of comments: 6
  
  A mom friend of mine once declared, "I will not take my three children to the supermarket. I'd rather be shot."
  I thought, "Really? That seems extreme." But I had one child then. One small child who couldn't walk.
  But now? With two sons who act like whirling [...]
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• Cornhole is one word

  Number of comments: 9
  Here's a typical conversation between my husband and me after the kids have gone to bed:
  Hubs: You remember on our trip when the guys were out back to play cornhole? And Hope came out and asked if I'd ever played cornhole and I said I only watched it [...]
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• Five

  Number of comments: 8
  You really get to know someone when you hang around him every day for five years.
  
  You find out he is a thinker.
  
  
  
  (Even if he doesn't want to show it.)
  
  He throws himself into the things he loves. He's sincere that way.
  
  [...]
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• Week by numbers: My big fat family road trip

  Number of comments: 10
  0: Times I ever thought that when I moved away for good at age 14 that I would eventually go back to visit with a husband and two sons.
  
  
  
  1: Family wedding that never happened. (1: Heartbroken bride who slumped to the grass, sobbing, which [...]
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