I had just finished filling up my tires at QT yesterday when a woman came up and tapped on my car window. Her cheeks were sunken, her teeth were rotting and her body was wasting away. She asked if she could have some money to go buy a sandwich. This woman looked like she needed …
Do you remember your first aspiration? I’m not sure if I came by goal-setting naturally…I actually think swimming eventually drilled it into my thick skull. But I remember wanting to win at an early age. Anything really. I wanted to go to the Olympics, though I had no idea what that meant. I wanted to …
We live in weird times. I watch period films and envy the simplicity of their lives…the reading rooms in homes actually used for reading. I’m grateful for medical advances and the fact that women are now encouraged to exercise, but I’m not exceedingly thankful for social media, online advertising, basically everything that snares us into …
Matt and I watched “You’ve Got Mail” last week. I had actually never seen the classic rom-com all the way through. If you haven’t seen it, Meg Ryan plays Kathleen Kelly, the owner of a children’s book store which is about to go under due to the opening of a huge corporate bookstore, Fox Books. …
Yesterday, Skylar and I went to Hobby Lobby. I just had a few Christmas crafts needs. It wasn’t going to be a long trip. Skylar would sit in the cart happily with her snack, of course… We entered the store and Skylar refused the hospitable cold metal cart seat. In her defense, she’s getting too …
Dear Skylar, Today you turn two. In the months before you were born, we found out we were having a GIRL. I cried. For some reason your daddy and I were confident we were going to have a boy first. We were shocked, but not let down in the least. I cried because I knew …
I’ve read my fair share of parenting books at this point. Many of them defend those so-called “terrible twos” saying they really can be terrific twos! And I remember reading their words when Skylar was an angelic 14-month-old and nodding my head, thinking “Yep, that’s gonna be my girl”. But Skylar’s 2nd birthday is in …
Do you ever feel like you’re a slightly different person every day? Some days, I like the changes I feel. I’ll spring out of bed ready to tackle my to-do list with fervor. I’m confident in my abilities, my goals, my hair… Other days, I feel like I never get my eyelids fully opened and …
It’s a gorgeous day in Tucson. I’m seated on a coffeeshop patio in the foothills and it’s a blustery 76 degrees. I should be basking in the glory of this weather, landscape, pumpkin spice coffee, but instead my chest is tight with guilt. Many of us can’t take a full breath because of stress, but …
I have a shirt that says, “focus on the good”. I ordered it from Unlock Hope years ago. I always laugh at myself when I accidentally wear it on a travel day or a day I know is going to be especially long. Because, well, those are the days I don’t naturally “focus on the good”. …