Last January I took a good, hard look at my life and myself. I sat down and made not just a list of goals but also wrote detailed steps to meet those goals. I was determined not to let another year slip by without making progress on some big parts of my life that, let’s be honest, have been sorely neglected or abused. My health, my career, my ...
When I was in college, a friend introduced me to the movie, Home for the Holidays. Starring Holly Hunter and Robert Downey, Jr., it’s about the special brand of family crazy that comes out around the holidays. For a group of half-adult, half-child college students preparing to go home for a few days, it was the perfect way to simultaneously brace ...
When my friend Kristen announced she was starting a maternity home in Kenya, I was so impressed and proud and inspired but a little confused. If I’m honest, I didn’t really understand what she was doing or why she was doing it. I’d read her stories as she traveled with Compassion International, and I’d watched her — virtually, from a distance — ...
I'm sitting at Panera on a Sunday afternoon. I got here early enough to snag a booth for my laptop and me, but as the lunch crowd has grown I've grown self-conscious. People are probably mad that I'm taking up a whole booth, I think. I should get up and move. But as I crane my neck to look for a smaller table, preferably one near an outlet, I only ...
"I'm sorry. How can I help you?" The first time I heard it, I thought I must've been mistaken. The second time I heard it, though, I realized that's indeed what she had said. The girl at the drive-thru window of my local McDonald's had started apologizing before taking orders. Now, I realize we could easily make a joke about how yes, fast ...
I’m in the market for some flashcards. For the first time since starting school, Annalyn is struggling a bit with math. I’m grateful her teacher constantly communicates with us and let us know she needs to work on some math facts. With a little extra effort I’m sure Annalyn will be back up to par for third-grade math. Side note: I’m not so ...
My oldest is ten years old, officially a "tween," as she's informed me. I suppose this means a lot of things, but one of the most fun is that as her mom, I have a legitimate reason to listen to pop music. Unironically. Because that's what she likes, so that's what we listen to, along with showtunes and worship songs, country music and what has ...
As we ate our takeout and queued up our shows on the DVR, my husband and I caught up on the business of the week. We talked again about our daughter’s behavior, and I confessed something I’d realized about the situation. “I can’t start fresh,” I whispered. “My frustrations just keep building and building, and there’s no break, no relief, no blank ...
The first time we bought an SUV (or, if you want to be technical, a crossover), the strangest thing happened. When I drove it I began feeling like "a real mom." WHAT. I don't know. I don't know what A REAL MOM is, you guys. But when I drove my mom car? I felt like one. We bought it not long before I quit my full-time job to stay home with ...
On a Saturday morning I found myself with arms and mind overflowing as I hurried my girls into the car for a little road trip. Blankets and snacks and books and gift bags somehow made it into the car along with my people, and we were off. The first half of our drive was fairly peaceful, with the girls glued to tablets and books and me tuned into ...
