My little Lou Bear. I’ve written so little about you since your infanthood. You live the lot of the youngest child—no baby book, no professional photos, no long-winded blogs detailing your every milestone. You’ve survived your birth order (after all, you know nothing different) and somehow come to be six years old before us withRead more
I should tell you to set down your phone. I should tell you to STOP (in capital letters) and be in the present for a second. But I won’t. You’ve heard that before. Instead: I get it. In fact, I’m there right now. Sitting cross-legged on my yoga mat, writing this on my iPhone. IRead more
In 2016 life delivered me to the place where I picked my first Word of the Year. Discover. I meant it as an invitation to delve into the deeper things of this life, to see and learn and know and feel. But also to be seen. To be known. To foster learning and convey feeling.Read more
You’re in fourth grade now. You’re more than half arms and gangly legs. You are remarkably independent and take-your-breath-away self-sufficient. It’s silly that your dad and I would expect anything else, knowing us. You’ve gotten yourself out the door and walked to school alone since you were six. You mother your little sister more thanRead more
Basically the goal of me writing this post it to get you to read this blog post. Please read it. It’s that necessary. It’s stuck with me for weeks now. Dear Laura, Do you ever/did you ever look at friends’ Facebook posts, or hear good news about their lives, and be filled with a combinationRead more
(9.17.15) I’m sitting in this weird hotel room in Lynnwood, WA. The suburbs north of Seattle. Where I started the phase of my life that changed everything. Where I fled when the life I knew for nearly twenty years almost killed me. My dad drove me up to the treatment center and associated house forRead more
Yesterday I finished Glennon Doyle Melton’s (aka Momastery) “Love Warrior” in twenty-six hours. That is unheard of for me. Because I am a working mom. Because I notice nowadays I can’t really commit my attention beyond a short essay linked from Facebook (and, even then, sometimes that one little click is just too much *scrollRead more
I posted this picture on Facebook and Instagram this weekend. Actually, on Valentine’s Day. I commented on how big my second grader looks, both in general and specifically with her hair pulled back. And then I looked at the picture a bit longer. And I commented: #momwrinkles. It wasn’t a slight on myself in theRead more
When my first daughter was born, I pretty firmly identified as a stay-at-home mom. It was somewhat lucky I could reproduce my way into an occupation, because I was a full-on twenty-two year old mess before that. For the first two years of my girl’s life I was with her basically day-in and day-out. YouRead more
I’ve seen more “20 Thing You Learn in Your Twenties” lists than I can count or link to. I appreciate these lists for perspective and a social expectations check-in. But I don’t find those generic articles to represent my experience AT ALL. My life in the last decade much more closely resembles the things oneRead more