Stories to encourage and inspire… from the all encompassing heart of a mother
Break the pattern… that was the directive from my heart as I was working on an advocacy approach to ending bullying in October of 2013. I had spent a lifetime overcoming those patterns in my own life and felt pretty successful in helping my kids navigate it for themselves. I called it successful because they…
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To tell the truth, I should have known better. I mean, doing a post about parenting a pre-teen through the perilous waters of social media is just asking for trouble, right? I knew opening the conversation would open the door for me to be judged for my choices and place my daughter’s newsfeed under…
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There is nothing like middle school to fire up the angst engine… for parents. Sure, sure… my daughter was nervous the first week worrying about what she would wear and doing her hair and trying out for volleyball but, 10 days into the school year it has already eased up for her. The anxiety I…
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On the second day of January, this year, I found myself wandering around a cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts… at sunset. Given the historical context of the area, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to stop there. Given the timing of this stop on my journey and the things that I have witnessed along the way,…
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My 11-year old daughter just left the house to go meet her new baby sister. The changes that have unfolded in her life, that have led to this moment, have been touched on in these posts, but they don’t have to be known to be evident. Changes are a normal part of growing up, and…
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“Pretty’s not a pie that there’s only so much of…” That’s how I began a book I wrote for my daughter when she was 5. She was beginning to experience the subtle peer messaging that is aimed at how we look and as she was my 4th child and 3rd daughter, this wasn’t my first…
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Dance routine… That pairing of words has never, ever, made sense to me. Because, as a noun, routine is simply a sequence of actions or a fixed program and when used as a descriptor it’s something performed as part of a regular procedure rather than for a special reason. Fixed. Regular. No special reason. Those…
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Be like my dog, Shiner, and own what stinks. But… if you must blame someone, #blamebill. I tip my hat to him for being willing to make change.
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Somewhere between early September and late October, last year, something in my life shifted. Imperceptibly, at first, but I must have made a wish, or something, that changed the degree of an internal guidance system, just enough, to land me, in a basket on a dirt track next to a paintball course, a long,…
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It’s one of my favorite lines in a movie, maybe ever. It’s a statement made by a donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy, in the animated 2001 fairy tale, Shrek. For those of you who may have been living under a rock for the last 17 years, it’s about an ogre, with a Mike Myers…
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