What’s it like to be a parent? It’s alternating the feeling that you made the best decision ever, and the feeling that you are barely surviving. Parenting is having tiny creatures following you around all day demanding to be fed and then screaming at you for giving them food. It’s stringing together several wonderful days […] Read more…
Please, let your kids make mistakes. Do not confuse letting your kids make their own decisions with the notion that you are “letting them win” or “failing to be a parent.” I have been publicly judged for allowing my kids to make their own choices. Frankly, I think it’s a ridiculous notion that we should […] Read more…
Well, it finally happened. Both my kids now know that my last name is different than theirs. First, I need to thank everyone who has been praying from us since first learning that I would not take my husband’s last name. I know this was really hard on you. You shook your heads, you shrugged […] Read more…
Oh, you don’t have kids? Let me shut up right now. It’s really easy for the topic of children to come up in any conversation I have with anyone. Typically, my kids inject themselves into the dialogue by taking the phone, jumping on my shoulders or tugging at the pants leg of my conversate-mate. Inevitably, […] Read more…
I can’t be the mom whose house is always clean. We will always have crumbs on the floor and fingerprints on the door. I can’t be the mom whose outfit is always cute. I have necklaces that never get worn, and don’t even get me started on my hair. But I will be the mom […] Read more…
Momma needs a playroom. My kids have a playroom. Technically, they have about six playrooms, as their toys simply invade half the spaces we have in our house. There is one room, however, dedicated solely to their Legos, dollhouse, kitchen set, blocks, dinosaurs, superheroes, cars, teddy bears, princesses and costumes. The room is in a […] Read more…
Sweetheart, I have been thinking about this day all summer long. Being a mommy to two little kids in the summer isn’t always easy. Some days, the hours stretched into years. So, when people would ask, “Are you sad your son is going to kindergarten in the fall?” my response was a proud and defiant, […] Read more…
“She is so tired,” I think as I watch my daughter sleep. She spent the entire day doing everything she should do: running around the back yard half-naked, jumping into a swimming pool, chasing the dog and playing superheroes with her big brother. I read her favorite bedtime book, and she falls asleep in my […] Read more…
Summer was always something to look forward to, wasn’t it? As the weather warmed in April and May, we, as grade school students, got that itch to roll around in the grass and ride our bikes in circles in the cul-de-sac. For my child-self, those summer days were never long enough. The hours at the […] Read more…
Friend, last night, you told me that you missed me. I hope you meant that it isn’t that you miss me; you just miss what we once had. Our lives have changed so much over the years, but my undying affection for you has never wavered. Not the time you forgot to leave a light […] Read more…