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Intending Diversity
With birthdays a year and three days apart, we have gotten away with throwing a joint birthday party. We had planned to do so for as long as we could get away with it. The Birthday Bash has become a staple; friends and family look forward to it. We rent out a shelter at the park, grill a bunch of good food, fill up the coolers with beer, wine coolers, water, and juice boxes, and turn the music on loud. It’s fun and laid back, and Mr. Softee even makes an appearance at some point. Perhaps what I love the most about the Birthday Bash is the diversity of those…
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The beauty of feeling understood
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The beauty of feeling understood
My sons are lovely beautiful creatures, divinely formed and gifted with many super wonderful qualities. There. I started off positively. That’s good, right? Thanks. Honestly though, my oldest two sons are so trying! They are brilliant and curious and creative, but so trying. No amount of keeping up with them amounts at all to feeling like we (the parents) have anything at all under control. We have journeyed through many different parenting strategies, have attempted to understand them through many a lenses. Even when we manage a semblance of calm at home, as soon as we journey into the world of excitement, – or even worse, allow a beloved guest…
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Intending Diversity
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Kids: Words, Thoughts, and Love
Over the last several months, I have committed to weekly networking lunches with women from all walks of life. In committing to and opening myself up for these conversations, I have been amazed at all that I have learned as a result. One such conversation led me to the book Quantum Success by Christy Whitman. I will probably need to spend months (maybe a year. seriously.) reading and re-reading this book to even begin to digest its contents, but there was been one specific point that immediately did flips in my mind: the power of thoughts. “Our thoughts are like seeds, and our minds are like a fertile field of soil that…
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Seasons
It’s approaching 9pm and has been pitch black for an hour at least. It’s still in the 70s, even this late. The air feels relieved after the sunny 90 degrees of the day. It’s September in the midwest. The days are hot and sticky and humid, but there are signs of fall approaching. The sounds of the first leaves rustling on the ground. Even a crispness to the cool air that smells like change. The in between never lasts long enough. And usually I don’t slow down enough to notice. But tonight, I paused. I paused and noticed the air and leaves and change around me. I breathed in the…
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Parenting in the age of know-it-all parents
I skimmed Facebook as my little one finished his first bottle of the day. He sipped the last drops, and we jolted downstairs to get the big brothers dressed, fed, and ushered to the car to get to camp and daycare. It was a stunning day – sunny and still cool in the early hours of the morning. Just the weather that makes morning traffic bearable. We breathed in the fresh morning air as we drove, music up and windows down. But despite the beauty that was all around, something had me in a mood. What, though? The kids had actually been decent this morning. I had managed to get…
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How to Be Realistic about Postpartum Weight Loss
Weight gain has always been a thing with me. I’m always up and down, up and down. When I’m up I’m anxious about getting down, and when I’m down, I’m anxious about not going back up. Until I had kids, I can honestly say there wasn’t just a neutral for me. I was either up or down, and regardless of which, I was anxious. I got pregnant a few blissful months into our new marriage and was ecstatic. I was at that point in an “up” phase, carrying about 20 pounds more than neutral should be. But I decided that I would not allow weight gain to be a stressor…
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Motherhood: A Constant Work in Progress
I guess nearing Mothers Day is as good a time as any to write about my thoughts on motherhood. Around this time last year I had just started to feel like I had found a sense of “me” again after having two babies within a year of each other. After four years, I felt a semblance of “you got this” in my life, and I ventured to start a blog in an attempt to get myself out there and try something outside of my 9-5. I am a millennial after all – isn’t non-conventional what Millennial do? Or is blogging now conventional? I should clarify for those who have read…
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If You Give a Mom a Romper
This is what happens when you go shopping with a young and hip chick. Fellow parents will likely be able to relate: it’s been a long time since I’ve shopped without a toddler in tow. And while my boys are sweet and frequently flatter me with, “you are beautiful, Mommy” in the dressing room, for some reason, trying on clothes with a toddler who has a hanger in his shirt and is pretending to be a superhero isn’t super relaxing. Even if on the rare occasion I was alone and shopping, never in a million years would I have tried on this romper. And honestly, if my young and hip…
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Home, Sweet Home
Does anyone really enjoy a vacation with young kids? Really – please send me your secrets if you have found the key to truly enjoying a vacation with young kids. We just returned from a week-long trip to California, and while I have loads of memories, I will have to work to ensure that the memories I remember are the happy ones. Truly, it was a lot of work. But one blessing in disguise about vacationing with young ones is that it helped me to appreciate the comfort of home a bit more. Generally I am the type to feel anxious if not on the go. I feel overwhelmed by…
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Full Hearts
This weekend was busy, and crazy, but so, so full. We awakened Saturday with a long to-do list. We are leaving town on Tuesday and have lots still to do in preparation. The boys awakened and began playing with Spiderman and Kid Arachnid. Daddy got breakfast, we wrangled everyone into the cars, and we set out in twos for errands. I left soon after to sing a wedding, and my husband got the house ready for the babysitter who would arrive after naps were over. The first wedding joined a Mexican American & Irish American couple. The music was lovely, the bride stunning, and the families so happy and supportive.…
