Adulting
Excerpted from Eve Crawford Peyton’s blog, Joie d’Eve, which appears each Friday on MyNewOrleans.com I had the week off, but it wasn’t the same. When I was in high school, “spring break” was something I watched on MTV but never…
Author: Eve Crawford Peyton
Home-School Hullabaloo
Every so often, I get frustrated with some aspect of my life and make stupid, unrealistic pronouncements. “We’re all becoming nudists!” I’ll declare after spending an entire Sunday afternoon washing, drying, folding, and putting away laundry. Or: “We’re just…
Pandemic, Week 1
Well. Huh. We’ve reached a stage where I am scared to say anything because as soon as I say it, it’s immediately dated. Two weeks ago, I was loving the increased emphasis on hand-washing – but still planning to…
Introvert’s Fever Dream
With the first presumptive positive for COVID-19 in the Greater New Orleans area, I continue to live out my introverted, germaphobic fantasy. I can now, without looking as weird as I really am: Refuse politely to shake hands Open…
Lather, Rinse, Repeat
I’ve never really been hip or cutting-edge. In grade school in the ’80s, when the popular kids were tight-rolling their stone-washed jeans, I wore my favorite pair of pastel-striped culottes at least once a week. In middle school in…
Parenting Tips
Excerpted from Eve Crawford Peyton’s blog, Joie d’Eve, which appears each Friday on MyNewOrleans.com As a “seasoned” mom, I often get asked for parenting tips – and I have no idea what to say. My daughter Ruby told me last…
Carnival Calories
I got through Hurricane Barry evacuation this summer without eating any of the hurricane snacks. I got through my birthday with only the tiniest piece of cake. I didn’t eat a single piece of my kids’ massive haul of Halloween…
It’s Carnival Time
So for those who might be wondering: I did take Ruby to Krewe du Vieux this weekend, and she loved it. We laughed at the floats, we caught some blinky rings and some…
Krewe du What Do I Do?
Just a few weeks ago, I posted advice for newbie parents, giving my take on things from the perspective of someone who’s been doing this parenting thing for more than a decade. A few days after that, a friend on…
Krewsin’ Through the Month
Excerpted from Eve Crawford Peyton’s blog, Joie d’Eve, which appears each Friday on MyNewOrleans.com 1. Cleaning my house. Last week, I spent an hour cleaning my daughters’ room. I also tidied up the living room and cleaned my car. Now…
The Nature of Public Grief
As the nation mourns Kobe Bryant, I am as sad as I am when any celebrity dies, which is to say “sad but not sad in the way a personal friend would be.” When Prince died, I listened to…
Chapter & Verse
Georgia has hit a milestone – one that excites me way more than first steps or lost teeth. Georgia has started reading chapter books! Ruby, in her time, hit this milestone with great reluctance, not liking any of the…
Parenting Advice
My daughter Ruby told me last week that there’s a rumor going around her school that I’m a teen mom. She was offended on my behalf; I was wildly flattered. “Do they really think I look that young?” I…
King Cake Conundrum
You know you’re getting old when you get excited about a new calendar, but here I am. I got a brightly colored calendar for 2020 that features hand-drawn pictures of food with hand-lettered recipes (this month is borscht!), and…
Ringing It In, Quietly
New Year’s Eve is right up there with Valentine’s Day in terms of being overhyped and loaded with false significance and forced romance. I don’t hate them, but I try not to imbue either of them with much meaning.…
So Lame
My almost-teen daughter, Ruby, stepped in front of the TV while I was simultaneously pedaling frantically to nowhere on my exercise bike and trying to watch Ina Garten make something obscenely rich and fattening for the holidays. (“My mom exercises…
The Tyranny of the Elf
Christmas is a lot, folks. The shopping, the wrapping, the baking, the parties, the decorating … and throughout it all, the relentless pressure on parents – and these are typically moms – to make everything extra-magical. From minute to…
Christmas Tree, Revisited
When I wrote this almost six years ago, everything still felt kind of new and exciting and painful and raw. I was two years into my marriage. I was four years out from my divorce and the death of…
Daring to Say “Happy Holidays”
I agree with Errol Laborde on many things – although notably NOT shrimp, which I hate and he loves – and he is one of my favorite humans. And I know Errol loves Christmas, traditions, and especially Christmas traditions.…
A Baker’s Dozen
Every year when the calendar page turns over to December, I have the same initial thought that most Americans have – the only significance December held for me for 26 years: “Oh, hey, it’s almost Christmas!” This means buying…
Joie D'Eve: Christmas Listicle
I typically love a good portmanteau, so I’m not sure why I have such a visceral dislike for the word “listicle.” I guess I am opposed to it from a journalistic standpoint, as it just seems… well, lazy. It’s lazy to just…
Easy as Pie
It’s almost Thanksgiving, so this is a story about a pie. Well, not just a pie. A pie and a long friendship. Jordan and I, we sometimes joke, met three last names ago (or two marriages each ago) – in…
So Lame
My almost-teen daughter, Ruby, stepped in front of the TV while I was simultaneously pedaling frantically to nowhere on my exercise bike and trying to watch Ina Garten make something obscenely rich and fattening for the holidays. (“My mom…
Getting Schooled
I never really wondered where I’d go to high school. If I got in, I was going to Franklin. If I didn’t, we’d worry about it then. I got in, so that was that – and I had four…
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Tom Robbins famously said: “There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better.” I’m not really in my Tom…
Going Too Fast
Excerpted from Eve Crawford Peyton’s blog, Joie d’Eve, which appears each Friday on MyNewOrleans.com “I can’t wait till I have my own room,” Ruby said wistfully the other day. Her stepbrother, Elliot, is a senior this year and will be…
Candy Counting
In most things, Ruby is nothing like me. A natural extrovert, she loves parties, people, team sports, cheesy inspirational messages, sleep-away camp, and group hugs – all things that range from making me vaguely uneasy to making my skin…
A Game of Telephone
The internet is fond of telling me that I, born in 1980, am part of a micro-generation known variously as Generation Catalano (for the dreamy Jordan Catalano of "My So-Called Life"), the Oregon Trail Generation (for the ubiquitous video…
Watered Down
Another day, another boil order. As the kids say, “I can’t even.” Two things happened Saturday related to the Sewerage & Water Board. First, I got a bill for $286 for a single month. The typical U.S. family spends…
Autumnal Yearning
My older daughter is very into the word “aesthetic” these days. I’m sure it’s something she picked up from Instagram, but suddenly, everything is an aesthetic. VSCO is an aesthetic. She wants a certain aesthetic for her birthday party…
