Blog Posts
A Palm Sunday Reflection in the Time of COVID-19
We can choose to remember that it is okay to feel weak right now, and that in our weakness, we are not separated from our faith. As I heard on a wise podcast recently, “Pain can be a prayer even when you don’t have the words.”
Valentine's Day is the New New Years Day for Women Over 40
I’m going to make this holiday about self-love because now I finally have the chance to kick this year off with a holiday that doesn’t make demands of my time and energy.The concept of Galentine’s Day didn’t come to be without good reason. This is the time of year when women can finally look up from their to do lists, brush that last random Christmas tree needle into the trash, and think about introducing some intentional self-love into our daily routines.
Parenting in the Age of Burning Koalas
This is a personal essay that considers the anxieties of parenting in a new age of climate crisis and burning koalas.
How to Survive Parenting with a Chronic Illness
Parenting is never easy, but it can be especially challenging when you have a chronic illness. Here are three manageable steps you can take to yourself along the parenting journey.
Three Ways to Help Anxiety in Children
Anxiety in children can leave parents feeling heartbroken and helpless. Here are three ways that we have found to help anxiety attacks in children.
10 Lessons I Learned About Motherhood from Mister Rogers
Mister Rogers seems like an unlikely hero for modern day mothers at first glance, but upon further examination, there were ten big ways that he influences my parenting style today.
There is Something About Forgetting - A Poem
That feeling you get when looking back at an old picture of you with your baby many years later.
What’s in a Name? Stonyfield Greek Giveaway {US; 7/15}
Win (5) FREE Stonyfield Greek coupons and to celebrate their name change, learn the meaning behind my blog's name!
One Year of Pandemic Outdoor Living
Today, I was reflecting on how routine lulls the brain to sleep. Getting outside of our comfort zones is important to rediscover wonder, joy, and adventure, and that completely represents our past year.
Since I have high risk health issues and the four of us were primarily home all year long, we would have truly lost our sanity if we hadn’t focused so much on adding outdoor adventure into our lives. Being outside was our freedom, stress-relief, and inspiration.
Watch the video and read more below!
Sometimes our outdoor life meant family soccer in the yard, or a bike ride on the trail by our house, or a walk through a neighborhood that wasn’t our own to switch things up. Other times, we drove to different states for true adventure. We hiked, walked, skied, snowboarded, biked, scavenger hunted, explored, and whatever else we could find outside to maintain our sanity.
Of course, this wasn’t easy. Though I recognize with true gratitude the mountain of privilege we sit on having the choices to stay home and be able to spend time outside the way we have, it hasn’t been all smiles as our pictures show.
Our daughter developed some extreme anxiety issues during the pandemic. Almost every time we left the house this past year, it was hard for her. Not hard like taking on a small challenge, but hard like extreme panic and tears and emotional meltdowns. It was so sad for us to watch, and it also was frustrating and patience challenging and just another storm of emotions for each of us on top of everything else that everyone has experienced this year.
Everyone’s had their own hidden struggles as is always the case, but this year held up a massive magnifying glass for every person to sit with their darkest feelings. It’s been a year that shook all of our foundations. We’ve all learned to recognize the everyday heroes of our world in a way that we may not have been able to see before. We’ve learned to embrace highs and lows and worry and fear. We’ve all found our own way - with everyone comfortable on different paths of their choosing - to make our way through hard things.
I love watching this video because it reminds me of all of the smiles and the little braveries and how choices to push outside of our comfort zone can help us take tiny steps through big things. We’ve all made our way through this pandemic and through the hard things in general that we all face that remain away from the public eye in different ways. This video doesn’t capture the stress, tough choices, sleepless nights, hearts missing loved ones, and much of what I agonized over and spent the majority of the pandemic doing, but it’s one piece of this year’s truth, and I know I’ll be holding on to this tiny piece in future hard times and for always.