Clueless Mom
I stood there amazed. My one-year-old wailed wordlessly in his highchair, clearly incensed at my inability to interpret whatever he wanted. He was steamed. And you…
Baby Love
My youngest son, now 10 months, was stripped to his diaper in the half-dark the other night, perched on his changing table. It was one…
12 Ideas for Coping When Dad Travels
My husband’s gone this week. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen often. With the morning I was having when he left, I was in tears by the time he hit the interstate. I can…
Black History Month — and Me
Posters pressed to the large windows at Barnes & Noble reminded me that it is Black History Month. Now that I have a kindergartner for…
Little Kids and a Lonely Mom
Want to know something that’s surprised me about motherhood? Isolation. I used to arrive home from my 40-hours-a-week in the workplace to welcomed silence. Now,…
My Marriage: Cross-Cultural Studies
When I was 16, I spent six weeks in Venezuela with some missionaries and some nationals. It left a significant impact on me, and I get…
Go. To. BED.
One area of mothering I very clearly have yet to master is bedtime; my kids pop out like a jack-in-the-box. It does not help that…
One Small Solution to Stuff-itis
This week as I carted the new Christmas toys upstairs, contemplating where to store the new loot, I felt somewhat heavy and divided, as I have occasionally…
Grieving at Christmas
I heard a thought second-hand recently, which was originally from a mother who’d just lost her child in a terrible accident. The mom explained that…
Giving: A New Kind of Shopping Spree
One of the feelings I hate is what I’ll call the after-Christmas glut. It’s a little like that feeling you can get after a Thanksgiving feast: I…