New Year, Fickle Me
The clock and calendar did their collective roll into 2022, and nothing changed. Admittedly, I was asleep for the occasion, but it appears Tinkerbell did not come in and tap her magic wand and make everything better. Fireworks didn’t shower us with life-changing embers as they twinkled and fell to the ground. Neither was there dissipating magic at the stroke of midnight turning everything back into pumpkins and mice— after all, no one would accuse 2021 of being magical. We simply finished one year with its mix of highs and lows, grief and joy, fun and hardship, and were ushered into a new one that will have its own unique…
2021, Where’d You Go?
Wow. It has been a hot minute since I last wrote or shared an update. Thank you for your patience with me as I shake the rust off my brain and try to remember how to put keystrokes to screen and compose complete, adult-sounding sentences again. Somehow an entire year has gone by and I am now the parent of children that are 8, 7, 5, 3, and 4 months old. Yes, they are all a year older and there’s a new one. They have multiplied, somedays like Gremlins it seems. I am basking in the glow of warm, white lights on a tree that will probably be up for…
Waiting After Christmas
I sit amidst piles of boxes and stray wrapping paper as the chaos of the last few weeks comes to a pause. It’s an inhaled breath, held and waiting before we exhale back into normal. The holidays are coming to a close; with one last hurrah, we’ll ring in a new year, the list of holiday to-dos will be finished, and Hallmark and I will both go back to our regularly scheduled programming. The days after Christmas always feel odd to me. For 24 days in December, anticipation and excitement brew, twinkling in our eyes like lights on a tree. Then the morning finally comes, and we celebrate. The paper…
The Gift of Friendship
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year… I hope you’re singing that song in your head, though you might disagree with the sentiment. Instead, it might be the most expensive time of the year, the most stressful time of the year, the most depressing time of the year, or the most lonely time of the year. The holidays have a way of sending emotions into overdrive. Twinkling lights, Hallmark movies, and sugar cookies can make some people overflow with joy. But for others, the happiness everyone else seems to feel causes a quick descent in the opposite direction. It feels like Eeyore walking around underneath a raincloud, wondering how…
Thankful for the Little Things
When dinner time arrives, after the chaos of cooking, setting the table, getting drinks, arguing with kids over who sits next to whom, and how to keep negative opinions to yourself, when we’ve all settled into our places, we take turns naming things we’re thankful for. It’s one way we’re trying to cultivate a heart of thankfulness and gratitude in our children. Though I can’t take credit for the idea. My parents started this tradition during my grumpy tween years of ‘everything is awful, nothing good has ever happened in my entire life.’ As my mom told me then, “I don’t care if it’s that you liked your ponytail today,…
Tis the Season for Reminiscing
The chicken thighs were boiling in my large stock pot on the stove, the air filled with the warm fragrance of chicken stock, and I was peeling and cubing potatoes. The next step would be getting the biscuits cut up for dumplings. This is one of my favorite meals to cook because it has 3 ingredients and is almost mindless in its preparation. Added to the fact that I always make it in obscenely large quantities, it’s one of my go to recipes to share with families in need of a meal, which is why I was making it again this week. Listening to the thwack of my knife against…
