Laurie Gould -- Midlife Mom Songs

It’s mid-September, and my fridge and kitchen counter are overrun by the season’s bounty. 

I am doing my best to make the most of it.   Pickling jalapeños!    Roasting and saucing tomatoes!    Washing, slicing and blanching kale for the freezer!   Blitzing garlic and olive oil and freezing it in ice cube trays!   I am Putting Food By for the winter.    Let’s face it:  I’m a pioneer woman at heart.   

So I’m thinking that if the Fashion Icon thing doesn’t work out, I’ll make the switch to Tradwife.

I came…

Dear readers:   it has been some time since I’ve posted in my role as a Fashion Icon of a Certain Age.   A good influencer would post pictures of herself at frequent intervals, showing off her new and imaginative stylings.   My own stylings, sorry to say, have largely been old and unimaginative.  I have been away so long that the Facebook algorithms have long since decided to ignore me.   I have been a thoroughly absent friend.

So let’s catch up!  Since last I wrote, I’ve been busy working on music videos (…

I am married to a man who likes to say Yes.   I, on the other hand, like to say Maybe, let me check the calendar for that day, that week, that month, and think about how I’m likely to feel when the time comes. 

In August we see this advertisement:

While I am still checking my calendar for the day, the week, the month, Steve buys two tickets and emails them to me.   “Steve,” I protest, “this event requires us to bring one cake per ticket – that’s TWO cakes – after a week when we have opera tickets and theater…

A new music video, for everyone who's being bombarded by hair-on-fire political fundraising missives:

My favorite time of day for yoga is late afternoon or early evening.  It’s a chance to clear my mind after a day of work and capture some calm for the night ahead.  At yoga I can shift my focus from answering emails and reconciling spreadsheets to planning what I will cook for dinner, hopefully with a stop at clear-headedness in between.

Deepak Chopra says:   The past is gone, the future is not here, now I am free of both.

I’m feeling pretty good as I enter this particular 6 pm yoga class—even more so because…

What is your priority when you return home after a week away?   If you’re a gardener, and it’s growing season, I bet I know the answer:  it’s the reunion with your plants.   How did they do in the week’s searing heat?   What’s sprouting?   Climbing? Blooming?

It can be a real thrill, this time-lapse experience of a garden in late June, when growth is at full throttle.  Plants set in place in May need a few weeks to settle in and establish their roots (very literally) before they’re ready to ramp up the…

It is somewhere between Christmas and New Year’s and my husband and I are loading our bags into the back of an Uber that will take us to O’Hare Airport.   We have just finished the first leg of our holiday trip, a wonderful week in Chicago with our younger daughter; and we are preparing to fly to LA for a wonderful week with my brother and assorted nieces and nephews.

My phone lights up with a text.  It is from United Airlines:   our departure has been delayed by 50 minutes and will now leave at 1:50 pm.   …

What do Jews do on Christmas?   The stereotype says that we go the movies and eat Chinese food.   I want to set the record straight:   my Jewish household does not always do these things on Christmas!

This year, we did them on Christmas Eve.

I’ve had a lifetime of ambivalence about Christmas.   Growing up, I loved the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, primarily because there were kids’ shows on TV in prime time, hours usually reserved for news and other boring adult crap that might as well have been news.   Fr…

My first grandchild, a wonderful little boy, was born six weeks ago.  It’s an identity-shifting moment.   For most of my adult life, I’ve thought of myself as a mother above all else (“midlifemomsongs,” right?).  Now, I’m the mother of a mother, and my own mother is gone – I’m as far as it goes, generation-wise.   I’m becoming Grandma Laurie, crafting a self-image to match this new phase in my life.

No problem!   I’m a Fashion Icon, remember?   Image is what I’m all about!   Of course, say the word…

A new video, once again featuring the inimitable Julia Ansolabehere on the clarinet!