First published in the Tri Town Transcript, December 7th 2018. By Esther C. Baird Oh, Christmas decorating. Regular readers know this sets me into a tizzy every year. Between the events and the decorations and the shopping, I fall behind before I even begin. And let’s not discuss the family card. I am the deer…
Author: Esther Baird
Overhearing My Own Story
First published in the Tri Town Transcript Nov 16, 2018 By Esther C. Baird Like many people, I need to work in a specific context. When I’m working in my church role, I prefer to be at my office on-site where I have my big heavy books, multiple Bible translations, a small space heater and…
A Lifetime of Field Trips
First published in the Tri Town Transcript Nov 5, 2018 By Esther C. Baird Every year, despite feeling, as Regular Readers know, a teeny bit resentful that summer is over, I try to be a good school mom. I sign the forms and attend the teacher conferences and send out class emails about fundraisers. This…
Left on the wrong side
First published in the Tri-Town Transcript Oct 19, 2018 By Esther C. Baird I was covered in blisters, my daughter had scraped knuckles, and we were all cranky. Every time I leaned over to try and work, a giant, bright, glittery, star-shaped balloon hit me in the face.
Predictable Chaos
First published in the Tri Town Transcript Oct 4, 2018 By Esther C. Baird Things are beginning to settle into a semi-pattern of stops and starts and rides and canceled practices and last minute forgotten homework or cleats or insurance forms or doctor visits. OK, it’s not a pattern; it’s the chaos of fall but…
Therapy for Back to School
By Esther Baird First published in the Tri Town Transcript, September 21, 2018 Back-to-school fills me with so many emotions. Not really. Mostly fills me with angst. I recently came across the first back to school column I ever wrote when my eldest daughter had just turned two in 2006. I sent her to preschool…
Keys to Ski Free
First published in the Tri-Town Transcript, 9/07/18 By Esther Baird Fine. By the time you read this column, summer will be over. But as I am writing this over at our family camp on Lake George, it’s still on. For three more days. It was a busy summer. Besides the tour de’ New England I…
Don’t Forget Your Towel
First Published in News – Tri-Town Transcript – Boxford, MA 8/10/18 By Esther Baird Here it is mid-summer and I am very much ignoring the back to school nonsense that is starting to percolate into the ads. Mostly it’s easy to dismiss them because we’ve spent our summer at our family’s camp on northern Lake…
The Gift of Summer
Originally Published in the Tri-Town Transcript – Boxford, MA June 15, 2018 By Esther C. Baird As I type this I’m a mere day away from summer. I’ve sat through the programs, ceremonies, presentations, and all the pre-final, almost final, and actually for sure, final things. I’ve watched my two little kindergarten-aged girls do bizarre…
Photographic Evidence
First published in Tri-Town Transcript – Boxford, MA Jun 1, 2018 By Esther Baird I’ve had a personal computer in my house since I was about 7, which was around 1980 (don’t do the math, I’m a “mom age”). I was raised to be computer savvy. And unless you have an entire evening don’t ask…