recent posts
- Tiny March Moment | That One Warm Day Everyone Needed
- The Month My Kids Outgrew Something…Again
- Raising Kids in the Group Chat Era
- When They Were Little and March Meant Puddles
- A Detailed Review of the Floor in Every Room My Teenagers Have Dramatically Entered
- Tiny February Moment | Late-Night Kitchen Check-Ins
- 10 Days Before Thirteen
- What My Tweens Think Love Is (Right Now)
- Teaching Love to Tweens Who Pretend They Don’t Need It
- Snow Days Then vs. Snow Days Now
Category: Laughter
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March used to mean puddles. Not metaphorical ones. Real, muddy, sun-warmed puddles that gathered at the edge of the driveway and along the sidewalk where winter finally loosened its grip. Back then, March arrived in the form of rain boots lined up by the door, jackets half-zipped, and three small voices asking, “Can we go…
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Ten days from now, our house will quietly (and not so quietly) cross a threshold. Ten days from now, Jase, Henley, and Sadie will turn thirteen. Thirteen feels different. Not louder, exactly. Just heavier. Like a door swinging shut behind us while another creaks open ahead. We’re not slamming the door on childhood—we’re just setting…
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January, as it turns out, is not a fresh start. It is not a clean slate. It is not a gentle reset. It is not an opportunity for growth, reflection, or becoming a better version of yourself. According to my almost teenagers, January is an offense. An inconvenience. A personal attack. A month that should…
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My Loves— We are standing at the beginning of a new year, and I want to mark this moment. Not with resolutions or promises we can’t keep, not with a highlight reel or a tidy bow—but with truth. With gratitude. With the quiet kind of love that has carried us when nothing else could. This…
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Thanksgiving break: the magical time when school screeches to a halt, turkey takes center stage, and your tweens remind you why teachers deserve hazard pay. While Pinterest shows us candlelit tablescapes with acorn garlands, what we actually get is five full days of “I’m bored,” sticky pumpkin pie residue on the counter, and the eternal…
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Thanksgiving is the season of gratitude. A time when families gather around the table to reflect on life’s blessings: health, home, loved ones, and pie. Lots of pie. But if you ask my three tweens what they’re thankful for, you won’t hear “my sweet, selfless mother who birthed me and makes sure I have clean…
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Fall parent-teacher conferences are here. And I, for one, am not emotionally prepared. If you’re like me—living on caffeine, running late, trying to remember which kid likes ranch and which one is boycotting sandwiches this week—then you know that nothing sends your fragile heart spiraling quite like those 15-minute meetings of doom (or delight? Who…
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So here’s the thing: telling your kids you have breast cancer is right up there with “explaining algebra” and “teaching someone how to parallel park” on the list of impossible parenting tasks. Only this time, the stakes feel way higher. Matt and I told the kids in the kitchen booth—the place where life happens in…
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Once upon a time, I thought the toddler years were the emotional peak of parenting. Silly me. That was just the warm-up act. Now, here I am, squarely in my mid-40s, experiencing the joys of perimenopause while parenting three tweens entering puberty. That’s right. One body. Three hormones. Five moods before breakfast. Welcome to the real Hunger Games.…
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Welcome to the moody middle ground of motherhood, where your once-sweet child has become a now taller than you critic with zero filter and a master’s degree in Eye Rolling. I love my tween, truly—but wow, the commentary is constant and deeply unasked for. So in the spirit of solidarity (and humor), I give you:…
Fry, Party of Five 