Tomorrow I graduate from law school. I’ve said that that I was done with school before, twice, so I won’t make that mistake again. But I will say that I’m going to miss this school in particular, and this way of thinking about big things. I don’t quite understand all the fuss around graduation. But I…
Sometimes the simplest things are the funnest. This rainy week we set out to use our new preschool science kits (found here) and started by exploring with baking soda and vinegar. We did the standard volcano: The kids really did enjoy watching it fizz over the test tube and seeing their red and blue volcano lava mix…
Last year we went on vacation – the first one we took as a family of five since my mother was diagnosed with cancer, since my father was diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia. We had found a wonderful home health care provider we trusted and felt like we could leave with our children for a…
As parents, how can we care for ourselves to make it possible for us to care for others?
I have mentioned before in previous blogs that one of the things about a progressive degenerative dementia is that it does not fade. You don’t heal from this. You just watch it steal someone’s life slowly. It is a terrible thing to watch a loved one go through this. It seems like once we have…
Growing up, I always looked forward to this time of year. The nicer weather, brighter days, and evidence of life growing in the garden were great, but what I really looked forward to was Easter. In my family, Easter has always been a bigger deal than even Christmas. My mom would start getting into the…
We are in the height of dance competition season. While that can mean fun times with our teammates and lots of opportunities to perform publically; it also can mean STRESS! Now that I have two competitive dancers in this house, the possibility for stressful things to happen has doubled. The first competition of the season,…
This week Remy has discovered slides. Remy knew about slides before, of course. He loves the stairs at any playground and often climbs to the top (with one of us nervously standing behind him) where he waits for us to go down the big slide with him. This week, we accidentally ended up at…
Damn Diabetes, Indeed. Around Thanksgiving last year, we got a call I convinced myself would never come. Because my hubby is a Type 1 Diabetic, we put our kids in a study called Trial Net. Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which basically means your immune system attacks you instead of viruses or bacteria.…
The other day I caught the kids snooping. They found a box full of memorabilia and were having a fun time going through it. It included items such as the hospital bracelets that no longer would fit around their arms and old birth announcements. They all agreed that the note I wrote to their dad…
Many of you may not know that my mom passed away on November 8, 2014. She was only 63 and died from complications of pneumonia and stubbornness. I say stubbornness because she was sick and just kept thinking she would get better, so she didn’t seek help until it was too late. When it happened…
This week Lent began. Lent is, hands down, my favorite season. My small family is not Catholic, but we believe in embracing truth and beauty wherever it can be found. And Lent is truly a season of truth and beauty. Lent has three main tenants: prayer, fasting, and alms giving. For the past eight years…
Remy loves to be outside. I know this for sure now because he can tell me. When Remy wants to go outside, he wanders away from whatever we have been doing and finds his shoes. If it is still early in the morning, he will also toddle off to his room to find a pair…
Valentine’s Day is coming up soon, and that means restaurant specials and sappy McDonald’s commercials and aisles of pink and red things assaulting your eyes in the grocery store. For those of us with small children, it means coercing lovingly supervising valentine writing. “Just write one more name, honey, just one more, and we’ll call…
Sometimes, being a law school parent is a good way to lose perspective. I often marvel at my law school parent cohorts who have multiple children, many of them old enough to be living their own lives full of events, activities, desires, and impulses. I consider myself lucky to have a 13 month old who…
It’s the time of year where red glittery things line the store shelves and my 1st grader starts freaking her dad out with words like “boyfriend” and “Valentine.” I, on the other hand, am choosing to focus on all the amazing crafts I can squeeze in between now and the 14th. Today we had half…
Sometimes there is not enough chocolate in the shake to right the wrongs of the world. I curse myself for not having any chips in the house and where the hell did I stash the Nutella? Currently, my tastebuds must tolerate freezer burnt Tin Roof Sundae. I am a shitty mom. There…I said it. Not…
“It’s a girl!” Those words still echo in my mind, and forever remain in my heart. A girl. The day that Emaleigh was born was the first day that I got to experience a miracle firsthand. Ray and I created her! A first time mom, I remember being exhausted. But, I could easily stay awake…
A couple weeks ago I asked my kids how they would describe me to someone else. I must be a glutton for punishment. Boy Q said, “I would say that you’re…so, SO OLD! Like really old!” Then he dissolved into laughter. Girl Q sensed that she needed to say the opposite: “I would say that…
This post orignally appeared in Greeley Moms in November 2014. But I felt it was important to share this again as the subject of parental leave has been coming up in the news more recently. Photo from shutterstock.com If you are a mother who works outside the home then you are probably all too familiar…
Rocky Parenting 