I have always struggled with change. Maybe that is how I ended up moving back to the same street I grew up on. I love what feels comfortable. I love what is familiar. I remember when we moved back here to the house we are currently in, how I had to...
I’m in need of good dopamine boosts these days. My timeline apparently knows this, and is suddenly flooded with AI videos of Christmas time in the 80’s and 90’s: Kids riding in the back seat of their parents station wagon for pizza at Pizza Hut...
The other day, while standing in my garage, I heard a scream and a sob from next door that definitely sounded like an injury. It was my 2-year-old granddaughter, Mavis, who lives with her mom, dad, and baby brother in the house attached to ours. I’d...
Yesterday morning, I looked at my phone to discover the horrible news so many of us discovered: That Dolly Parton died. I wasn’t surprised by how it shook me. I have long admired a person who stays kind, and true to their convictions. I had followed...
My daughter, son-in-law, brand-new grandson, Henry, and 2-year-old granddaughter, Mavis, live in a house attached to ours. It is one of my life’s biggest privileges to be able to be this close to them. It means that we can share dinners, I can help...
There was a lot of commotion here this afternoon. Every family member was here. The TV was on. The baby fussed. I was trying to trim my two-year-old granddaughter, Mavis’, hair in between also cooking dinner. It got to a point where I was feeling...
This house is being overrun with hormones. Parenting multiple teens while in Perimenopause sometimes feels like a joke. Half the time I expect to have someone walk out and reveal hidden cameras, so I can laugh nervously and say, “OK. It all makes...
We have been in Baby Mode over here, following the birth of my first grandson, Henry, nearly two weeks ago. As you can imagine, we are hopelessly smitten with him. Thankfully, it is no work at all, however, to make sure his older sister, Mavis (who...
Last week, I had the privilege of watching my first grandson be born: A nearly 10-pound beautiful boy named Henry Calvin. Even though I have had four children of my own, there is nothing that can describe getting to witness childbirth as an observer...
It was 15 minutes until the graduation was set to begin, and I was saving him a seat. I started telling myself maybe I should have reminded him yesterday when I still hadn’t heard from him, though, even though it is unlike him to forget this kind of...












