I went for a walk with my daughter, Tessa, last night along the trail by our house. We’ve been trying to go every night, really hyping each other up to prioritize fitness this summer by telling each other what absolute rock stars we are, and how...
A few evenings ago, as dinner time neared, I got a text from my dear friend Amanda: “Tell me there have been some days this summer where Paige has looked at a screen until her eyes fall out. The kids have been busy, but today they have literally...
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...