I had mostly succeeded at scrubbing my vocabulary of curse words when my oldest child became sentient, but lately they've crept back into my head. And also my speech. Apparently dropping an F-bomb here or there releases endorphins, which is probably why these words keep rising to my lips unbidden. There is a serious lack [...]
My daughter sits in the backyard, digging through mud, her clothes stained with dirt and her face strained with focus. I reach for my phone and flick it on. Tap Instagram. An acquaintance is organizing her Tupperware to a Spotify playlist she made just for the quarantine. I stand, stretching out the ache, and plod [...]
Waking up to a whole day without any outings or childcare can be pretty daunting. Especially since we're going on week 8 -- or is it 8,938? -- over here. As much as I love my kids, there is a law of diminishing returns when it comes to spending time with them. The longer we're [...]
From Marilynne Robinson's Gilead : "For me writing has always felt like praying, even when I wasn't writing prayers, as I was often enough. You feel that you are with someone. I feel I am with you now, whatever that can mean . . . Well, but how deeply I regret any sadness you have [...]
I keep thinking of this line from Spanglish. Yes, the 2004 Adam Sandler rom-com which netted only 53% on rotten tomatoes. That one. We've brought you Dorothy Sayers, C.S. Lewis, and now . . . Spanglish. Bear with me. Let’s be friends: Join our email list Mid-way through the film,Tea Leoni’s character cheats on her long-suffering [...]
Hey there, mama. You've been staying home with your kids for a long, hard couple months. You're exhausted and are looking forward to nothing more than a girls' night out in the post-quarantine world. Chips and salsa, sangria, and clothes that aren't yoga pants—if they still fit—are in our future soon. Mental note: I need [...]
Lately I have had the sensation of a heavy weight on my chest. I've laid awake at night and wondered if my off-and-on coughing plus this pain wasn't allergies but the coronavirus, especially since I had pneumonia after the flu in January. But, a test came back negative. Along with my results came a sigh [...]
This new way of living is hard. My body aches by the end of the day, and I wake up in the morning exhausted. We were already a homeschool family, so that hasn't changed for us. But my five-year-old with autism has lost all her therapeutic services that we rely on. Actually, that's not technically [...]
It's such a weird Easter season this year. I'm trying to find a way to celebrate these holy days with reverence and importance right now, but honestly . . . my family just wants to watch Trolls 2 on TV together tonight. So the question becomes: do I fight it? Or do I give in? Because, I'm [...]
As someone who's been thoroughly churched her whole life, I have a pretty robust philosophy on hardship and how it should be born. And when it stays in the theoretical realm, hardship always seems saintly. Martyr-ish. Noble. But when a particular problem arises, it feels a lot less beatific. I wasn't expecting this particular puddle [...]
