My chair has a blanket draped over it. It's a summer blanket, a beach blanket that the kids got me for my birthday a few years ago. It has a pretty blue background and white stripes, which is what a summer beach blanket should have. But when I open it to spread across my legs to keep off the chill, I see red juice stains from summers ago. There are about 4-5 pinkish dots that scatter across one small section of the blanket. I don't remember how they got there. I picture the blanket spread on the sand marking our family territory, making room for more people to gather around, and warning others that more would be joining us. The blanket holds everything from beach bags to T-shirts to sunglasses to towels and sometimes phones and wallets left under a baseball hat. The kids can lay across it or huddle around to eat their lunches. The stains could have come from anything. Maybe my niece ate a frozen SpongeBob popsicle from the Fudgie Wudgie guy. Maybe my daughter spilled juice as s...
balancing life, work, and family