I gingerly put my Mickey Mouse, the one that came all the way from Disney World, in my Strawberry Shortcake backpack and grabbed my Pac-Man lunchbox. I was very excited because it was the day of my first show and tell. There was no question that I...
I was just lifting my coffee mug to my lips, when suddenly my husband was leaning over to me, phone in hand. His eyes were big, and immediately searching my own. On his screen there was a message from a mutual friend of ours: “School shooting threat...
By 8:00 this morning I could just tell. I could see the look in her eyes every time they darted for a painful second to meet mine. All I had to do was ask her if she was OK, and before I knew it, she broke down crying. As I sat with her on the edge...
Having teenage daughters is much like having an Advent Calendar: Every day a new treat inside. Except, with this Advent Calendar, the drawers you open contain tiny scrolls that state which way you’ve embarrassed, upset, or made them frustrated today...
Before school even began I’d felt overwhelmed, to be honest, just from looking at the bell schedule alone. It really feels like parents have dealt with enough lately, doesn’t it? Distance learning, and Covid, riots, and shots, and now we are adding...
Their objective was clear from before school even started:Let no one ever know they owned jackets, or had a family here.My two middle daughters started high school last week,and, if ranked,I think those two things would have been their top cares. On...
When my daughter, Conley, was a younger version of the funny, charming, dancing, gap-toothed girl that she is today, as I tucked her into bed, she would say in her sweet voice weighed down with sleepiness, “Mom, today was a good and a fun day.” It...
My middle two daughters start high school this week, and that has me feeling so many things. I’m reminded of doing high school drop-off my very first time 8 years ago with my oldest; How you watch them from your car, just praying they’ll face...
As I sat in my last class of the day, Algebra II, which was not only my most despised subject but also the one that I was remarkably inept in, my eyes drifted from the nonsensical letters and numbers on the board to the windows that lined the left...
Is it possible to have an open heart and a closed fist? Is it possible to have an open mind and a closed door? Can one have a humble, meek, lowly spirit one moment and then a spirit of contention, divisiveness, arrogance and intolerance in the next...