First published on the enCourage blog, a PCA Women’s Ministry. January 6, 2020. I don’t want to be contrary but talk about the new year never sits well with me. Yes, it’s a new year, I get it. One day it’s 2019 and the next day—and perhaps a few noise makers later—it’s 2020. The media…
The Baird Facts
My Minivan Truth
By Esther C. Baird First published in the Tri-Town Transcript Dec 18, 2019 Well regular reader, I have some sad news to report from casa Baird. We had to say goodbye to the Giant Sparkle, my favorite car of all time and our minivan of 10 years. Silver, loyal, large. I will never love a…
Thankfully Decorated
By Esther C. Baird First Published in the Tri Town Transcript November 26, 2019 When you read this it will be right around Thanksgiving. My early Christmas decorating may be mildly annoying to some of you, but still within the acceptable range. But what if I tell you that our decorations, like so many twinkling…
Highlights for Late Fall
By Esther Baird First published in the Tri-Town Transcript November 13, 2019 Recently my daughters and I got our hair done. My girlfriend is our hairdresser and the only person on the planet I trust with the skunk-like grey streak that runs down the middle of my head. Her salon is in Revere, which isn’t…
Detour to Vacation Mode
By Esther C. Baird First published in the Tri Town Transcript, Oct 31, 2019 We recently spent a family weekend in Stowe, Vermont, in a house that allowed dogs. I scanned the rental agreement looking for any fine print about vast quantities of fur but found none. So Blue Ears and Moose, our two Bernese…
Dinner with no backstory
Esther C. Baird First published in the Tri Town Transcript Oct 17, 2019 Mid-fall is the time of year when I begin to feel an underlying anxiety about dinners. You know, the fact that the family wants to eat one every night for, best I can tell, at least 18 years. Here’s a heart stopper:…
Memory of Middle School
By Esther C. Baird First published in the TriTown Transcript Oct 3, 2019 at 3:01 AM It began the first week of school. Our youngest daughter, a freshly minted middle schooler, headed off with backpacks and bags wearing gleaming new white Vans she had begged for. I relented even though white canvas shoes seemed like…
Back to Bad Fashion
By Esther C. Baird First published in the Tri Town Transcript Sep 17, 2019 Fine, it’s back to school season. I’ve written for years about the school supply death spiral and the lunch box march to nowhere. I’ve railed against the sexist box stores that only sell speciality sports shoes in mens and boys and…
Best Summer Ever
First published in the Tri-Town Transcript July 25, 2019 By Esther C. Baird Well it’s mid-summer. We spend most of our time over on Lake George in the Adirondacks at our family camp and neighboring YMCA conference center down the road where we work, volunteer, swim, boat and repeat. And so when, on the very…
Making summer accessible
First published in the Tri-Town Transcript Jun 19, 2019 By Esther C. Baird I’m typing this in the last gasp of May and you’re reading it in early June, which frankly is not much better. Volumes have been written about the horrors of May for parents of school-aged kids. Other columnists, bloggers and YouTube singing…