I hear it often. You probably do, too. "I couldn't do what you do; I don't have the patience." For me, I've heard it at every tick deeper into this all-in, every-hour mom journey I'm on. You had a natural birth? You're a stay at home mom? You've breastfed past the first year? You cloth ...
Parenting
I Get It Now, Mom & Dad
We didn't really know what we were getting into when we put our five-year-old on a swim team. But we were too deep into it when we started hearing things like, "Warm up starts at 6:30am!" and "Every parent needs to volunteer!" This, of course, would all have been manageable stuff if our oldest ...
You need to stop calling everything they do a mess (a letter to myself)
It's so crystal clear to me when I see other adults do it to my kids. My husband opens the front door and the first thing he sees is an array of LEGOS scattered across the floor (same LEGOs that allowed ME to cook dinner, but that's hard to realize after a tiring workday, I get it.) He greets us, ...
How We’re Doing Homeschool Preschool
Plenty of reasons bring parents together to figure out how to homeschool our preschoolers. Whether it's... -the high cost of preschool tuition (yikes!) -unavailability of preschools near you (I can't spend my whole life on a waiting list!) -the beginning of a whole childhood of homeschool ...
An Hour of YES Everyday
"Mommy, will you play superheroes with us?" my boys ask. "Yes!" I say over my shoulder as I load the last of the breakfast dishes, "but let me put the clothes in the dryer first!" But before I do that, I need to find an empty basket to put the current dry clothes in. There are no empty ...
To the adults who thought they deserved discounted airfare for sitting in front of my children
I've flown with my two oldest kids a lot. We live in Texas, my parents and siblings live in Michigan, the work that I do can be done anywhere so we're able to visit my family often. I used to have a count of how many times my boys have flown but I've actually, for real lost count now. (This post ...
When Little Becomes Middle
Dear little love, There are only weeks left now. Until your identity shifts. Until the biggest change of your little life. You'll go from Little Brother to Middle Brother. And I know you're excited. I see how you nurture your teddy bear and baby dolls, I love how you speak your sweet ...
Life after the Third Baby (+a review of the new Omni 360 carrier by Ergobaby)
Life has been a series of figurative and literal storms for my family. In the past two months, my mother-in-law lost her battle with cancer and we experienced the deepest grief we've ever known, I gave birth to our third son a few days after her funeral, and Hurricane Harvey ...
Until further notice, eating out is NOT a treat for this mom
"We're definitely the only people here who needed room for a stroller," I said to my husband from across the little black table. It was 9pm, and we were out for late night sushi as new parents--not something we usually did but our three-month-old slept soundly on long walks and through meals--so we ...
When you’re not turning out to be the parent you thought you’d be
My oldest son turned four a few months ago. I had no idea how much four-years-old would shake up my mom game. Three-years-old felt like my senior year as a mom to little ones--I was a little wiser, a little more cynical, a lot more relaxed, and kinda had the baby/toddler stage mastered. But ...