I had been going strong for weeks. Decorating, and shopping, and generally making things happen the way that moms do. The push to make Christmas feel extra, well, EVERYTHING this year has been strong. Whereas we may have always done 6 strands of...
It was late and I just wanted to be home. It had been a really long day. I was frustrated as I neared the front-end of the store to notice only one checkstand open yet again. My daughter, Tessa, stood beside me and I gave a withering smile and a bit...
Last week I received a message from, clearly, a very high quality friend alerting me to the fact that Petsmart had a sale on Guinea Pig Christmas outfits and I had better act fast if I wanted in. Immediately I got online to search this obvious...
Like many people these days I’ve been feeling a little numb. Ready for some tomorrows to be over before they even come, checking the clock much earlier than I used to, allowing my kids to do things that 8 months ago I would have never let them do...
For months we had looked forward to our family trip to Sedona, Arizona, and were nearing bed time on our very first night there, when Paige, my youngest, cried out from the bedroom, “My bunny! Where is she? I can’t find her, and I have looked...
Any time one of my favorite authors, Jen Hatmaker, mentions her horrifying Jr. High hair experience, (which is often) I am transported back to Jr. High, myself. I wanted two things between 1987 and 1989, and those were one of those phones that...
My mother came for a visit. It was her first one since her stroke. She’d done well with texting me her location every 20 minutes, as I’d instructed, for the entire 4 hour drive. I knew that it had seemed kind of bossy. I just wanted to know she was...
My Middle School girls, ages nearly 12 and 13, are deep in the throws of their Constant Embarrassment Phase. Reasons they could be horrified can range in cause from anything from a nearly invisible oil stain on their shirt to someone else spotting...
We were the second people in line and had been standing there quite awhile when I noticed why. The woman in front of us in line who was old and very frail looking, buying only a big water jug, was slowly counting her payment out in all change. She...
She had been quiet almost all day. She just looked at her phone and rode still in the car. I kept looking at my 13 year old daughter, Chloe, in the rear-view mirror when I thought she wasn’t looking. I was trying to keep my eye on her. Lately I’ve...