Small Purple Hippos
I was shopping in a fun boutique in Saugatuck not long ago, admiring the unique clothing, jewelry, and home décor. As I was browsing, I spotted this small purple hippopotamus. He had white polka dots and an impish face, and just looking at him made me smile. I...
Recovery
My kids and husband just got home from a super fun vacation to visit their grandparents in Vermont. The trip back involved about 19 hours in a truck. Nineteen hours in a truck with three kids, one adult, and a dog. They busted out of the truck like their lives...
PSA
Today is the most gloriously beautiful day. It’s warm, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the tree outside my window has tiny green buds on it. Spring is here. This tends to be the time of year when our collective mental health starts to improve. People...
Winter-Winter
There are four parts of winter in the Midwest. There is fall-winter, Christmas-winter, winter-winter, and mud-winter. Fall-winter is what happens when it snows on Halloween, when you realize you need a serious coat, when the sharpness of the air starts to take your...
On Your First Day Of Middle School
Dear Travis, One day when you were brand new in the world, I sat holding your sweet, tiny self and realized that some day you would be a middle school boy. I burst into tears. Your papa came home and found me crying, as I lamented that you would have to go through...
Media Mindfulness
The other day I was scrolling Facebook and came across a neat little infographic that a friend had posted. It had an interesting statistic on it that I hadn’t seen anywhere else. It was a repost, and the person who originally posted it did not cite her source. I...
trauma
I had a blog post all ready to go up last week, and I couldn’t post it. There’s too much going on for regularly scheduled programming. In the last few weeks, racial injustice has been highlighted in a major way. It's a centuries old problem, and recent events have...
Messy
A few nights ago I woke up around 2 in the morning and could not fall back to sleep. I felt restless and unsettled and my thoughts were racing. Around 4:30 I decided to just get up for the day. I went downstairs and was getting myself a cup of coffee, and my tired...
Anticipating
My son has declared that he is having “a Nerf gun moment.” He is not new to Nerf guns, but his enthusiasm these days is at an all time high. He just earned money to order a new one, and he counted down the hours until it arrived on our doorstep. He made new targets...
Rupture, Repair
Once upon a time I made some cookies that didn't turn out quite right. I thought they were edible; my husband sampled one and spit it out with a dramatic gag. I lost my marbles and he defended his reaction. Before either of us knew what was happening, we were...