I am eating the breakfast my friend and I used to make together on those lazy long vacation days in Boulder. Back when I was running away from motherhood and into her home to be taken care of. Yogurt, granola, strawberries. It’s nice to take care of myself. Except for when it’s hard to breathe. […]
Category: At Home
Startled by Grace
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. —Emily Dickenson Isn’t this how life feels? So often I just feel startled. Like when I walk into book club and am bombarded with the news that an acquaintance has cancer. Then I’m hurtling back and stumbling forward. And eating way too much […]
Love Is in the Room
It’s the season of the gift guide. I spy a lovely plate etched with blue flowers, read that’s it’s a perfect spot for my mother’s jewelry. Ah, I love receiving gifts, ones that are perfect and not so perfect. I love giving gifts. I love that I admitted it’s easier to receive them. Because when […]
Get Loud, Nancy
It’s been so quiet here. Life has been so loud, lately. Someone asked me once how often they should update their blog. I said update it only when you have something to say. Lately I’m saying so much at so many other places. The feature I wrote about trying to pass paid family leave in […]
Not Alone Enough
Lately I’m stuck on a phrase that isn’t helping me. Have you heard of the idea that we are making it up as we go along? We are making it up as we go along. We are making the coffee and toasting the bread and waking the offspring. It is winter time. Given a day […]
A Full Day’s Work by 9am
Yesterday I wrote a Facebook post about how parenting is hard, and I asked people to compliment a parent even if the only compliment you could come up with was about their shoes. Because who doesn’t love shoes? I made sure to note that I was not having a hard time parenting at that exact […]
The Not-Striving Place
Lately I yearn to be done with striving. Wouldn’t it be nice not to strive, I think. Just who am I striving for? Often I find myself striving for my family. And this is good except when it isn’t. Except that they all can strive for themselves. When my tween is sick and her teacher […]
The Eternal Motherhood Cunundrum
I watch Jada Pinkett Smith get fierce on camera about what it means to be a mother in this world. How we put ourselves last. About how we are expected to put our children first, our husbands second, and ourselves last. I watch her daughter listen contentedly. I think about how her daughter has been […]
My Bleeding Heart, Examined
So often I don’t know how to start writing. Especially on happy mornings like the one I’m living right now. The girls don’t have school and I laughed when Chris tried to wake us all up. I loved his befuddlement, the way he called out, “Are you up yet?” Even though we’ve been talking about […]
A Safe Place Called Home
A few years ago I was beautifully and impossibly stuck in grief. Why would I use the word beautifully? Goodness, that’s ridiculous and insanely weird. What’s beautiful about all those tears that streamed down my face as I pushed this rock that I thought of as my daughter’s learning issues up a hill? She repeated […]