Welcome to the blog
January 4, 2018
Here they are! The hodge-podge collection of books that filled my time, my brain, and my heart this year.
September 18, 2017
This year was my first time ever taking part in the crazy intense writing extravaganza known as the 3 Day Novel Contest. For those of you who don’t know, the 3 Day Novel Contest has been occurring annually over the long Labor Day weekend (or Labour Day, since it originates in Canada) for 40 years […]
March 31, 2017
“Tante, how do you make a guy?” asked my 4-year-old as he stared hard at the yarn in one hand and the crochet hook in the other, tapping them pointlessly against each other. As you can see in the above picture, my son was seated next to my sister (“Tante” = “aunt” in German) on the couch, both […]
February 24, 2017
Isn’t this picture the best representation of the daily realities of marriage??!? A husband and wife, eyes locked intently and affectionately on one another, he in a perfectly tailored suit and she in a flowy fairy gown, walking hand-in-hand through an endless golden field of magical sunflowers that seem to all be looking expectantly toward the […]
February 19, 2017
Arizona is the place I call home, and it’s a place that is frequently accused of having no seasons, but this isn’t strictly true. There’s no snow in the winter but it can and does get chilly. And the summers are awful but they’re dry and in some ways no worse than many other places. […]
December 3, 2016
I looked at my toddler today, snoozing in his car seat after some errands, and thought what every parent thinks at such times: How does he sleep with his neck at that crazy angle?? And then I also thought, as I frequently do, he’s so precious when he sleeps. He is one of the cutest children ever to […]
September 2, 2015
I have read maybe a hundred lists. The lists people post just to inform everyone else in the world, to make sure we’re not committing serious faux pas against each other. “10 Things to Never say to Adoptive Parents,” “The 7 Questions Every Foster Parent Hates to Answer,” “5 Gifts No Teacher Wants to Get,” […]
May 26, 2015
The last few weeks have brought their share of sadness in the lives of many people I know. Diagnoses of cancer–in family I love, in children my friends love, and stage four in a young mom I know, just two days after the birth of her fourth child. The death of children in unexpected accidents, […]
May 17, 2015
A couple weeks ago, as we were closing in on bedtime, we decided to be fun parents and let the kids stay up late to watch a movie and eat candy. Because we’re fun. The problem is, one member of our household didn’t see it that way. Would you be shocked if I told you […]
May 1, 2015
When we were preparing to foster, I thought happily of all the baking therapy that would take place in our home. My love language is baked goods (that’s the sixth love language, the book doesn’t talk about it for some reason), and I planned to show our child love primarily through chocolate chip cookies. I […]
