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Everyone and No One
It’s the first day of school and I’ve been reading posts by other parents all over the country with children in every grade imaginable. We are all standing on the same precipice and yet the truth is no...
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Magic from bits
Once upon a time I made a Halloween costume for Briar. I do not know how to sew, I cannot read a pattern, I don’t even flirt with trying a Martha Stewart project. Yet some part of me felt like I...
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My Sweet Chaos
The girls are home. I cried while they were gone. A lot. I walked past their bedrooms trying not to get caught up in the twisted sheets and discarded clothes all wrapped up in their summery scent of...
View ArticleSleepless
“I can’t sleep.” It floats down from their room often; the voice behind it is always Briar’s. It’s never Avery, for her sleep comes like breathing. Sometimes Finley chimes in that she can’t sleep...
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Stillness
Parenting reveals how often you move or, more specifically how often you didn’t move before. Your understanding of motion and stillness is forever altered. You bring your baby home and there is...
View ArticleKeep Your Head When…
A little over five years ago I was writing about reckoning heartbreak, as a moment in time refused to be ignored and I had to reevaluate what I was doing as a parent. The decisions I was making in the...
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Eight
Eight. More than eight years with you. These years are motion and fire. They are amorphous and finite at once, molten lava coursing through time, inexplicably and unapologetically racing and slowing to...
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No Recipe
I have no illusions that raising three daughters will be easy. I know from my own experience that self-confidence and self-acceptance can be ephemeral, a revelation of my own worth one day is hammered...
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Plan for Detours
The other day I was driving toward our house to meet the bus. I was coming around a bend that always gives me pause, something about it makes me brace for a child darting into the road. One night, I...
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Broken Plug
The concept of unplugging is a thing of beauty. Set aside the phone, close the laptop, hide the remote, and give yourself completely to the three dimensional. The pressure to unplug and the judgement...
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Unspoken Goals
Years ago I told Sean that I wanted to go to a conference. He told me to buy a ticket and book a flight. “I can’t,” I said forlornly. “Why?” he asked. “Because it’s happening right now in Chicago.” He...
View ArticleIdolize
There were papers strewn about the table, the aftermath of our after school “Mom, look at this” dance. By now Avery is skiing with Sean and Finley is suited up in pjs watching a show; her homework long...
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A New Dance
We were sitting in my living room while the girls sprinted around the house. My mom leaned over to me and whispered, “We took care of the Easter Bunny.” My stomach dropped, I’d completely...
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Hints of What Matters Amid the Chaos
Click to view slideshow. Time is doing that thing, that thing that reveals how fast it goes even while some days seem to last for weeks. It isn’t the back-to-school blur or a concentration of...
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Collision of Duty
The girls didn’t have school today. All of last week and over the weekend, the girls excitedly talked about what they’d learned about Veterans in school and the ways in which they had honored them. I...
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Don’t Blink
Night before last I was the last one up to bed. I was typing away down here, putting away the last dishes, and, of course, playing with the kittens. By the time I went up I was bleary eyed and ready to...
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Before Bedtime Requests End; I Hope I Hear Them
Somehow I thought that in the years of chronicling the ups and downs of parenting, maybe a lesson or two would stick. Perhaps a bit of writing it down would offer up a moment of grace to keep me from...
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Mom, are you there?
The text made my phone vibrate on the metal table downstairs. I let it go as I curled my hair. Lately I’ve felt too bound by the siren of notifications from my phone. I’ll get it later, I thought as it...
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Since They Were Born
Each of my daughters has been exactly who she was since I felt her first flutter in my belly. One responded to music, one loved it when I was driving, the other seemed to throw “Go mom” high fives...
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Small Steps to Big Things
I’ve been pretty open about the darkness I’ve experienced over the last 12 months. Looking back, there was never a moment when I thought, “Huh, I only write about shiny stuff here, I should explore the...
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