When my kids were little I started going to MOPS because I was so lonely and lost. Some of those ladies were a little hyper-religious but...

We read this George Saunders story in class last week and I had to share because it's so good: The Falls

​I was working on this story about​ relationships in one of my writing workshops and my professor recommended trying to show the...

These are weird topics to write about since all of my childhood memories seem like I was in a seventeen-year blackout and only flashes of the nights and days survived. I remember one Christmas Eve my parents went all out with the snacks and they called me upstairs for a surprise. I was walking through the dining room and stopped when a plate full of little smokies wrapped in Pilsbury crescent dough caught my eye so I was busy loading up a plate and somehow I didn’t see my si

Forty-five has such different meanings these days. Tomorrow is my 46th birthday so I won't be 45 for much longer. Now, I can’t round down...

I like that quote from Neil Gaiman. We wrote to it during my writing group and I came up with this weird response: I found out today a friend is getting divorced. Even though I spend about a thousand percent of my life complaining about my family, it makes me sad to think that there's will now be ending. All of a sudden like that. I saw a sign at the women’s march that said “No more families torn apart” and it made me cry, then my kid did this pre-teen sneer, “Mom, are you cr

I went to Las Vegas and everything was cool but still felt kind of weird. I liked all of the art and excess and crazily clad showgirls...

My therapist said it was a Mom’s job to remember their kids’ true essence, the one we saw when they were little and uninhibited so when they get wonky and have no idea who the hell they are, we can remember for them. Both of my kids are pretty hilarious, maybe on the dry end of the scale. As a kid, our oldest was really bold and would constantly charge into situations in ways that made me anxious. I’m supposed to practice noticing good things, but they seem so bland in compar

My therapist said that telling kids their family stories gives them a sense of control and helps them be better emotionally when they grow up. I don’t know a lot of the family stories because I was a youngest child and was pretty clueless about what was going on, but here are some half-memories and tidbits that I know: In my husband's family, his grandfather escaped from being a prisoner of war and lived off of wild turnips and onions. Why does it feel like I am mixing up th

I would put in a box full of adhesive eye patches, a pair of kindergartener-sized crutches, then nothing for five years since I can’t...