Recently, I got pulled over for driving while using my cell phone. To be clear, I was completely stopped at a stop light. Going 0 miles an hour. Glancing at my phone to double-check the address for my kid’s dentist. And yes, both kids were in the car. But yes, I was looking at my […]
Tag: parenting
Stop editing. Start dreaming.
Several months ago, during our evening ride home, I asked my four-year-old son what career he wanted when he grew up. As soon as I was home, I had to capture what he told me. Here’s his list (and I may have missed a few!): -Discovering new dinosaur bones -Teaching kids how to read and […]
Imagining the Splits
I’ve been doing some form of yoga or pilates to varying levels of intensity and regularity for the past 20 years, but one thing has remained constant: I’ve never been able to do the splits. I’ve never been close. In fact, it makes me laugh to even imagine myself doing the splits. Sometime I […]
Creating Happy Meals (the kind that don’t come with a plastic toy)
Being a mom had caught up with me. My kids and a demanding job were consuming every ounce of energy I had. And while weaning my daughter, I had developed what I thought was a sensitivity to gluten (but I didn’t actually have time to figure out.) I knew I was consuming more refined sugar […]
Smelling the Roses, Discovering the Figs
The other morning, my husband and I looked outside our kitchen window and noticed fruit growing on one of the trees. We moved into this house over 6 months ago and just realized we have a fig tree! Life feels like that for me recently. If I give myself the space to watch and […]
On My Bookshelf
I admit I don’t read a lot of parenting books. (Ironic for someone who is authoring a blog based on parenting experiences, I realize.) They often make me feel some combination of stressed/overwhelmed/bored/guilty. Maybe it stems back to my maternity leave with baby #1 where the stack of books on babies and parenthood remained largely […]
Notes To My Post-Partum Self
The other evening, I was looking for a photo on my computer and got stuck on a trip down memory lane, flipping through photos of our family over the last few years. Since my kids are a little more than two years apart, a lot of my recollection of that first year with baby #2 […]
The Power of Storytime
I’m in the middle of reading The End of Your Life Book Club, a tender story of a son and his mother, who is battling pancreatic cancer, and their relationship through the books they read together during her treatment. At its heart, its about love, family and the role books play in our lives. So, I’ve […]
Our Friend Peen
My son, Robot, (I’ll be using my kids’ nicknames in this blog) has a friend named Peen. Yes, Peen. Don’t ask me about the origin of the name. Peen is a globetrotter. He’s lived everywhere it seems: Mars, China, Portland, Washington, San Jose, and some place called “Peenum”. He is the fastest human alive. Also, […]
Welcoming Life
The other evening did not go well. Maybe it was the transition from vacation back to real life, the post-holiday, post-sugar blues. Whatever it was, it wasn’t pretty. Some days, that’s just how it goes. Both kids are ornery. I am short-tempered and tired and my husband is working late again. Traffic sucks. The kids […]
Alphabet Scramble 