Real Life

With the holidays coming up it's time to shop for gifts! I love shopping for the kids in my family, but you know what I don't love? Buying another junky toy that will end up in the landfill. So what...

"How many kids do you have?" It’s really an innocent question, but one I always struggle to answer. I'm a mom to three little boys; two of them are earth side and very much alive and active and my first...

Shortly before my 38th birthday, we discovered I was pregnant. This would be my fourth pregnancy and the journey up until this point was long and difficult, struggling with years of infertility and loss. My first pregnancy ended in...

We are going on eight months of a global pandemic in our country. Remember when we were all just kind of in a flurry of Tiger King and pajama days? Yeah, I barely do, too. It feels like a...

I'm going to tell you a short story about a woman I knew. She was the hardest working woman I had ever met. She always picked up overtime at work and never really made time for the things she enjoyed...

6:30 a.m. My alarm goes off. I need to pee but can’t bring myself to unravel from the cocoon of my comforter. I should also shower. I should have showered last night, but I fell asleep on the couch and...

Despite my propensity to strong emotional responses to SO many things in my life, I tend to “wait and see” during a crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis. And as a result of this crisis, the start of the...

When the pandemic forced schools to shut down last spring, we had to shift gears quickly and find a way to educate our oldest child from home. Our kitchen table quickly became schoolwork headquarters. It wasn't perfect, but like...

You know you're wrong. Your mouth goes dry and you get that sick feeling in your stomach. You feel the back of your neck heat up and your face flush. Your brain goes white for a moment and then suddenly...

  We’re five months into the COVID-19 pandemic and there are no signs of it going away any time soon. (Related: wear your masks, please! It’s a simple, scientifically supported solution for slowing the spread). One of the things that has...