I have a friend that is bearing something heavy, and silent. It is the kind of thing she smiles through with her mouth, but that never quite leaves her face. We appeared at each other’s doorsteps in the 80’s as gap-toothed children, and then...
I knew from pretty early on that I hoped to raise any children I had in a fairly free nature. Having been raised under the tight thumb of strict parents, I grew to see some wiggle room as a form of character development. After all, all my parents’...
Well, summer is officially here. You can always recognize it by the amount of cups that are left sitting out that no one will claim, and by the amount of effort I put into cleaning, only for it to look like I was never there, and have not ever...
This weekend we attended a memorial service for my dear friend’s mother, Roseanne, who for much of my teen years was like a second mother to me. Hers was the house we all wanted to be at, with the always stocked fridge, the swimming pool with thick...
I fear we have nearly reached the end of it without even mentioning that May is May School Lunch Awareness Month. The awareness ribbon for this particular issue is made up of questionable strawberries, and all of the packages of seaweed snacks you...
My fifteen year old finished her driver’s training course this week, meaning she can now get her learner’s permit. Therefore, unless I finally careen off some cliff because one of them refused to listen to my instructions like I always fear will...
Mother’s Day did not go as planned. My own expectations mixed with an exhausted spouse only led to disappointment and an argument. I took the kids to lunch alone. I forgot to order my own meal. I cried in the restaurant bathroom. This was not how it...
Several years ago, my husband Justin and I were in a Walmart parking lot – Birthplace of Many a Curiosity – when, in the next row over, we watched an old couple tumble down the steps of a Winnebego that looked to have that parking lot as...
I often get flack from my oldest girls, saying I make things so easy on the youngest. There are a lot of, “You NEVER would have said that to ME”s, and an equal amount of, “You would have SO made me do that”s. They don’t see as I see: That she is the...
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve begun to realize that my dad’s favorite mantra, “Sometimes it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission” really is true. I find this particularly applies well to my Facebook Marketplace finds. Though they have made...