Category: Parenting
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Mom, I Wish I Knew You Young
When I was out of town, my son and his fiancée stopped at the house to pick up old family videos. I’m sure they thought it would be fun to see my son as a toddler, running the coastline in a swim diaper while on vacation. Before I could even…
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Happy National Golden Retriever Day🐾
In early December, I shared about Maverick, the Australian Shepard my youngest (Texas) daughter brought home one year ago. In November, one year after Maverick joined the family, my son and his fiancée brought home a Golden Retriever! Love or hate us, we are New York Yankees fans, and that’s…
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Who is Giving Up Social Media in this New Year?
Not one person I know is giving up social media. People in my little world (and apparently across the globe) are exploring the countless additional, new socials (and apps) appearing at an exponential rate. Over the holidays, several conversations centered upon viral videos and various social media posts. For context,…
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I wasn’t much of a dog person until…🐾
We never had a dog while the kids were growing up, though a beloved mini lop bunny was part of the family for 12 years, along with a tortoise, hamster and guinea pig at various times throughout their youth. Our daughter and new son-in-law brought an Australian Shepherd home last…
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Gen Z’ers Think Mid-Lifers Know Everything…or Nothing
The 35-year-young mom of two preschoolers quickly said hello, then fired off a series of complaints to me in a breathy 20 seconds. ‘My husband and I should be saving money but he wants another flat screen on the back porch. Things aren’t great between us. Like, they are bad.…
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I Had the Time of My Life Fighting Dragons with You
Seated on the floor surrounded by moving bins, Taylor Swift’s music played in the background (randomly on my daughter’s Spotify) while I rummaged through my three kids’ middle school papers. My twins had just started sixth grade when we moved here and my youngest began fourth. Change is rarely easy…
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The Reminiscing
Most people merely laugh and cry while pouring over 1000’s of photos when packing up to move. This deep thinker took it to another level, wondering if Socrates would have included the usefulness of photographs and videos in his idiom that the “unexamined life is not worth living”. Do reminiscing…
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Moving: The Stuff
We grow up and make a home of our own. Some of us buy houses, condos or apartments. Whatever the structure, we collect some STUFF. And, I’m not a collector. So, how did I end up with so much? Photos capturing all we have done as a family make me…
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Moving: The Highlight Reel
We finally moved last week. My experience confirms the myriad of lists claiming moving is one of the top five life stressors. I’m also grateful to God that it was only moving stress and nothing more serious. We made it out alive😉, relatively in-tact physically, and are giving ourselves the…
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Be Encouraged, Your Sacrifice Matters
“I’m not really this person, letting my wife make the real money while I sit here 15 hours a day, seven days a week.” A once-vibrant professional and just-turned 40 entrepreneur/Dad says this to me fifteen years ago. “In my head, I’m back in a suit, important at work and…
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You’re Middle-Age When…Morning Routine
During the morning routine at the kitchen island, you realize that the decades of kid-related conversation between you and your spouse has been replaced by aging-body questions. The conversation goes something like this… Me: “How is your shoulder this morning?” Husband aggressively grabs shoulder, massaging it, then moves his arm…
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And So She Flew…Again
I laid in bed, silently grumbling that I was awake at 5:30am and didn’t need to be on that particular Friday morning. My eldest daughter was getting ready for work upstairs and I wondered if her Shark hair styler woke me. I pulled the blanket up to my chin, hoping…
Tales from a Mid-Lifer 