Tag: parenthood
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10 Tips for Traveling Solo with Kids
My baby was tucked snuggly in the back seat of the car. She’d been changed, fed, and was now sucking contentedly on her pacifier. Glancing back in the review mirror, I made sure her small mirror was angled correctly, that her pacifier was tethered within reach for when she inevitably spit it out, and that…
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Home Grown
My younger daughter’s chubby baby fingers dug in the rich, dark soil as my older daughter’s tiny toes balanced carefully on the wooden beam that extended across our small raised garden bed. I sat watching, anxiously, as they crawled and danced and wove between delicate climbing tendrils of a cucumber plant, wide, overpowering leaves of…
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To My First Baby on Your Fourth Birthday
Dear Sweet Girl, Has it really been four years since you first entered our world? Four years since I held the heavy wetness of your small body against my own? Was it really so long ago that you transformed my entire world and made me a Momma? I can’t believe it. And yet, I can.…
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These First Five Years
“I vow to lift you up when you are down and soar with you when you are in the clouds,” he said. “I vow to always rise to your challenge and strive daily to better myself and our relationship,” I responded. On this day five years ago, my husband and I threw these promises, these…
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The Hard Goodbye
Since deciding to make this latest move, I’ve realized that my excitement for this next chapter has been tempered with a twinge of sadness. I noticed that I was dragging my feet on preparing, and as I packed it was with heavy hands and a heavy heart. Even though we felt this move is the…
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On the Move Again
Question: What is more fun than moving twice in six months with two young kids? Answer: Anything. And yet, this is what our family is doing. Unpacked boxes still decorate the floor of our current house as the real decor remains un-hung. A short four months ago, we packed up our humble home and hauled…
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What Love Looks Like
On this day six years ago, on the bank of a lush green peninsula with the Tennessee River weaving its way around us, my (now) husband nervously dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. My heart raced. Excited as I was about the expectation of this day, I was stunned in this…
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In Defense of Weeds
I have a confession. I secretly love weeds. This is a statement that, as a newly minted gardener, I’ll probably be regretting in a few weeks. But for now, I welcome the wild weedy flora scattered about. Since, historically, my thumb has not proven to be green, I love the tiny buds and blooms that…
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Proud Momma
Modern day motherhood feels rife with judgements and expectations. Every person I meet or book I read seems to have an opinion on every aspect of how children should be raised. With all this noise from society, its easy to fall into a pit of self-doubt around my own mothering. The internal and external judgements…
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Moving On
“It’s like we were holding onto a different phase of life,” my husband mused as he hauled yet another box of our old relics off to Goodwill. “That’s because we were in a different phase of life when we moved into this house,” I responded wistfully. A few weeks ago, we found out we would…
The Small Wanders 