Why we’re all Luisa from Encanto’s “Under the Surface” right now

Why we’re all Luisa from Encanto’s “Under the Surface” right now

I’m not sure how much more can be said about the amount of seismic stress crushing parents right now. A month or two ago, I was feeling pretty optimistic about the way things were going, with lower case numbers and vaccines for kids under 5 (both of mine are in this age group) on the [...]

Thomas McKenzie was our Dumbledore and our Gandalf. The quest goes on without him.

Thomas McKenzie was our Dumbledore and our Gandalf. The quest goes on without him.

In epic tales, the spiritual mentor dies just when the quest is at its most precarious. As a member of Church of the Redeemer in Nashville, I felt this way when we lost our beloved priest, Thomas McKenzie, to a car wreck this week.    In Lord of the Rings, the fellowship is already weary and [...]

Don’t suppress your pandemic rage. The world needs it.

Don’t suppress your pandemic rage. The world needs it.

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 [...]

Hi, special needs mom who’s not doing okay in this pandemic. You’re not alone.

Hi, special needs mom who’s not doing okay in this pandemic. You’re not alone.

Hey, there. How are you? I mean really, how are you? Our lives have collectively hit an abrupt change, and some of those feeling it the hardest are our kids with special needs. Our kids for whom routine is paramount to having a successful day. From what I'm seeing on my special needs Facebook group feeds, we [...]

A lament for spring

A lament for spring

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 [...]

How to turn all this quantity time into quality time…without losing your mind in the process.

How to turn all this quantity time into quality time…without losing your mind in the process.

This post is based on a talk we gave to the Moms & More preschool moms group at Christ Presbyterian Church. Week 1 of the quarantine: we're rearranging our homes to start the new and exciting, if unexpected, process of homeschooling our kids. We're sitting by the fire and reading books. We created a sourdough [...]

Returning to “normal life” again will be a big adjustment too. Get ready for it.

Returning to “normal life” again will be a big adjustment too. Get ready for it.

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 [...]

Daily quarantine thought: You don’t have to save the world. You just have to get through today.

Daily quarantine thought: You don’t have to save the world. You just have to get through today.

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 [...]