My boys are getting older and they are becoming more able to prepare their own foods. However, they still ask me to get them food. As a mom I have prepared food for them for almost thirteen years. I have prepared meals, arranged food on their plates, and placed it in front of them hundreds of times. Doing so has been part of my duty as a mom.................................. To keep reading my guest post on The Everyday Mom Life link is ... Continue Reading...
Goodbye Kindergarten, This Mom will Miss You
I’m saying goodbye to kindergarten as my last baby finished his kindergarten year. With summer coming to an end soon I realize how much I will miss kindergarten. Kindergarten is a new beginning. It’s the first foray into school life with so many new adventures. It’s exciting to finally go to a big school with the big kids and ride the big bus. My youngest watched his two older brothers ride the bus for years. He’d wave to the bus as it drove away from the bus stop and left him behind watching ... Continue Reading...
A Letter to my Mother in Heaven
Dear Mom, I miss you. I wish you were here. I can tell you a mom is irreplaceable for a child. When a mom dies, her child is no longer whole. The loss makes it hard to breathe. That child flails in the wind like a cottonwood seed. A piece of fluff that gets knocked about the world by the wind. Sometimes I landed on solid ground, sometimes I landed in a pond and almost drowned. But I’m still here. I survived. In the year after your death my dreams plagued me whether they were about your ... Continue Reading...
Breastfeeding Taught Me To Love Being Trapped In Parenting Obligations
My boys are older now and I drive them to so many activities that breastfeeding them is just a memory. I can easily conjure up those feelings of breastfeeding closeness because the joy of it was so full and complete. Breastfeeding was a bonding experience I remember with joy even though I often felt trapped by it. Reflecting on my time spent breastfeeding has taught me to love each moment of being trapped in parenting obligations for every stage as my kids grow. This post contains affiliate ... Continue Reading...
An Ordinary Day to Cherish
Home It’s mid-summer and it was an ordinary day at our house. An ordinary day to cherish with family. We were all home. We were all taking our time to do what we wanted and needed to do. We weren’t in a rush. There was no school to get to. There was no homework or rushing off to a sports game or practice. We were just existing; we were just living. No one was sick. We had no catastrophes slapping us in the face. We were just a family enjoying our home together for the day. We were present ... Continue Reading...
Fight Violence with Blankets, Love, and Hope
It’s July and I want a blanket in this heat. I want to comfort myself in a blanket, in something other than what I see on the news. I want to ignore the details of the stories. I want them to not touch my heart because it hurts too much to know it. I want to pretend it all didn’t happen. Yet I can’t stop myself from listening; I can’t stop myself from hearing about the recent violence in the news. It’s been a horrific onslaught of senseless terror. My heart yearns to help those ... Continue Reading...
My Labor with a Midwife and a Physician
My three birthing experiences were completely different. With my first son labor was natural with a midwife who performed hypnosis on me (which worked to reduce my pain for a good portion of the labor), and a bit of Pitocin to finish dilation. My third son’s birth was a planned C-section and interestingly the quickest and easiest recovery. My middle son’s birth had all possible labor scenarios: overdue induction, natural labor with a midwife, dysfunctional labor progression with ... Continue Reading...
Why I’m Choosing Mom Play Dates with my Boys over a Clean House
I’m in my forties and my babies are not babies anymore. Time is roaring onward so I’m changing my priorities leaving dust to grovel at the bottom of my list. I see the dust in my house, and I love it. I’m choosing my own play dates with my kids over a perfectly cleaned home. Moms of kids under five may feel too swamped to realize this amidst never ending sippy cups and diaper changes, but time sprints once kids are school-age. My youngest anticipated his turn to start school, but I blinked and ... Continue Reading...
My Almost Fail as a Multi-tasking Mom
My article on Sammiches and Psych Meds about my backyard obstacle course race to save my kids' runaway guinea pig Butterscotch. Sometimes as a busy mom, I take on too much at once and I almost failed in my multi-tasking. Click below to read it. It will give you a chuckle! http://www.sammichespsychmeds.com/my-almost-fail-as-a-multi-tasking-mom/ Save ... Continue Reading...
I’m Living the Boys’ Life Disgusting Stories by Mom
In my house of dysfunctional bathroom use including poorly placed farts I get little boys’ hilarious burps, foam darts whizzing past my computer screen to the tune of heckling laughter, and all sorts of other things I dare not mention, but just wait and I will. I barely flinch. It’s no doubt I’m living the boys’ life with four males in the house: my husband and three sons aged 12 and under. I like to think of us as 4 Alans and an Ann as these are our middle names. Sorry boys, I ... Continue Reading...
