"Asaad, who has three young daughters, believes in female empowerment through work, but she did not emphasize women's rights in her campaign. She told me, 'You don't use the word 'rights'. Instead, she disarmed her opponents by deploying the notion of shame, which has great resonance in Saudi society. . . . she argued that no decent Saudi woman should have to talk about bras and panties with a man. Within months, Asaad had thousands of supporters, who said, on email and on Facebook, 'We're behind you, this is shameful.'"

. . . .

["In Saudia Arabia] women today tend to be more socially isolated than their grandmothers were. Previous generations lived within strong networks of female relatives and neighbors, and they routinely visited each other and prepared meals together. Now women are more likely to live in single-family homes in sprawling cities and suburbs, often removed from daily contact with their extended families."

. . . .

"Saleswomen spoke enthusiastically about the friendships they'd made with new colleagues . . . . There was a great deal of squealing and hugging . . ."

- Letter from Riyadh, Shopgirls in the Dec. 23&30 New Yorker

"I would not speak about 'absolute' truths, even for believers . . . Truth is a relationship. As such, each of us receives the truth and expresses it from within, that is to say, according to one's own circumstances, culture, and situation in life."

- Pope Francis

12.09.13 (Monday morning) - School canceled. Ice everywhere.





12.08.13 (Sunday night) - Dan made a wonderful dinner feast, esp. this salad (from the Ottolenghi cookbook).



12.08.13 (Sunday afternoon) - T basically spent the day like this.





12.08.13 (Sunday morning) - Snow!!



12.06.13 (Friday night) - Best friends.







12.04.13 (Wednesday after preschool) - Trains (the World's Fair) at the Botanic Gardens.

12.03.13 (Tuesday) - Recent schoolwork. P's on bottom (including her Xmas list, T's picture of our family in the middle, and F's schoolwork on top)







12.01.13 (Sunday night) - Dog walk.

11.30.13 (Saturday afternoon) - Two girls reading about a Wimpy Kid.







11.29.13 (Friday morning) - The zoo with grandparents and cousins.





11.21.13 (Thursday afternoon) - Before the Land of Nod trunk show.







11.19.13 (Tuesday afternoon) - Winkler Botanical Preserve.



11.18.13 (Monday afternoon) - Borrowed Christmas gifts.







11.16.13 (Saturday afternoon) - Ice skating for P's 7th Birthday Party.



11.15.13 (Friday afternoon, Hirrshorn Museum) - Besties.

"She continued to have problems with her balance, she was no longer confident about it, and also she became a little stooped. Age doesn't arrive slowly, it comes in a rush. One day nothing has changed, a week later, everything has. A week may be too long a time, it can happen overnight. You are the same and still the same and suddenly one morning two distinct lines, ineradicable, have appeared in the corners of your mouth."

. . . .

"The landscape was beautiful but passive. The emptiness of things rose like the sound of a choir making the sky bluer and more vast."

. . . .

"Like that, they were gone. All of it had come back so swiftly. The past seemed there at his feet, the neglected past. He felt oddly refreshed."

. . . .

"Wells had married again sure of even less. He had seen a woman's legs and talked to her in the neighboring yard. They had run off together and his wife had formed her life around his. Perhaps it was a question of that, arranging a life. Perhaps they would travel. . . They would plan trips together and stay in small hotels."

- All That Is, James Salter

11.13.13 (Wednesday) - Recent schoolwork. P's on bottom. T's in the middle (his line). F's on top (including her work from cartooning class).







11.06.13 (Wednesday afternoon) - Around.







11.05.13 (Tuesday afternoon) - Cox Farms on closing day (because the best thing to do with exhausted kids is to take them to a pumpkin farm??)



11.05.13 (Tuesday morning) - They woke up at 5:30 everyone. Yes, a.m. Avery's last day in town, then off to the Philippines (so sad).







11.04.13 (Monday night) - F's 8th birthday party. A sleepover. T fell asleep in his Fox sleeping bag, surrounded by 8 giggling girls.





11.02.13 (Saturday morning) - P's last soccer game. She scored a goal (and the team won).