Julie
Not My Toy Story: Decluttering and Decoding Childhood Toys and Treasures
Recently, my husband and I have taken up time travel in an attempt to convert our basement playroom's past to a future hangout for our teens. It’s an agonizing process—every childhood toy, book, stuffed...
Stop! In the Name of Love: Behind the Wheel with your Teenager
A child’s miraculous growth is a subject of wonder for all mothers. It begins with pregnancy and charges forth in a flurry of firsts: First time sleeping through the night, first birthday, first steps,...
Who Let the Dogs Out? Confessions of a dog hoarder…oops, animal lover.
We have a pretty archetypal household; married with two children (albeit they are twins), a comfortable ranch home in a nice neighborhood with two cars in the garage and a big backyard. It’s a...
Taking the Road Less Traveled
"Two roads diverged in a woods, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." ~ Robert Frost
There’s nothing I love better than taking a cross-country...
Ghost Parenting the Teen Years
Like midnight ghosts, we hide in our cars, trade secrets at night, and text when no one is looking. We are the parents of teens.
We are invisible.
It doesn’t happen overnight. We slowly start to...
When Regrets Become Resolutions
I’m not a resolute gal. Some would describe me as pretty laid back. Chill. But inside my head, there is some level of shoulda, woulda, coulda—not just on the precipice of the New Year,...
Happy Anniversary, You Turkey!
Thirty-one years ago my husband and I decided to tie the knot on Thanksgiving. In a different country.
Back then the term “destination wedding” had not been invented. We just wanted to do something different...
The Mother Channel: Intuition on Demand
Every year my twins, now 14, and I set out on a summer pilgrimage to visit my mother at our extended family home on northern Lake Michigan. It can be a remarkably boring 25-hour...
If I Only Had a Brain… Or an Oboe…
My husband recently mused that simply being a teenager is a form of mental illness. Normally, I may have laughed, but since he’s a psychologist, I had to think: “What if that’s true and...
Advanced Maternal Age. Denial. Twins. (And Mar-a-Lago.)
I waited a long time to get pregnant. Too long apparently, because once I began the process of fertility treatments at the age of 36, my chart proclaimed, “advanced maternal age.”
Wait, what?
Thirty-six just didn’t...