Start Something!
Three years ago this month, on the morning of my fifty-second birthday, I woke up, struggled mightily to pull on a sports bra, double-knotted my tennis shoes, and slunk into the small group exercise room at my local YMCA. Note:…
Three Stockings Were Hung…
“Boom, boom, boom!” is what I said at a party in our neighbor’s backyard that day. And a few hours later in the privacy of our family room, Scott called me on it. “You added a boom,” my very perceptive…
Raising Compassionate Kids
During a team-building activity in high school, the coach asked the group of athletes to share something that caused each of them anxiety. One by one, the courageous teenagers listed their things. When it was my daughter’s turn, she said…
Early Steps to Raising Readers
If you’ve been pregnant, the concept of using your baby bump as a shelf might be familiar. For baby number one, the bigger I got, the better I got at finding practical uses for this convenient surface. Depending on the…
I Have a Confession to Make
No one knows this about me. No one in my family, none of my friends, not even my husband. No one knows that I had an accident in a vehicle related to texting. Because I have always been committed to…
Mom Versus Wasp
Can wasps even see with their creepy eyes? That might seem like a weird question, but I have such a vivid memory of staring down a wasp that I’m going to say, yes, they can. Wasps can see us with…
Playdough Parenting
“There’s a sign-up sheet on the table!” is the last thing any working parent wants to hear during back-to-school night at a preschool. If I’m completely honest, I remember being skeptical of it being called back-to-school night in the first…
Mom Truths About Summer Camps
Dear parents who might be thinking about camps and activities for your children this summer – please, take a deep breath. I mean this in the kindest and most sympathetic way possible. Everything will be okay. You see, every year…
Help Your Kids Not Vape
How can someone so smart be so damn stupid?” My mother hugged me tightly and didn’t let go. When the hug lingered longer than usual, I knew she had picked up the smell of cigarettes in my hair. I had…
Taste of Christmas
It was my first cookie swap, and I was ready to wow friends and co-workers with my culinary skills and creativity. Of course, I would bake my mother’s semi-famous, wholly delicious pineapple cookies. Of course, this would be a fantastic…
