Mother/Daughter

They say you can lose your identity when you become a mom, and I do feel that way, because I spend all day every day with my toddler daughter helping her learn and grow. The weekends when dad is home from work, I hope he takes her out of the …

Remember when you thought talking to your kids about sex was uncomfortable and tricky to maneuver? Well, I have found a topic that feels even more terrifying. It’s called “How not to get trafficked.” This topic is vital today. Please don’t skip it. Ever look at your kids, ready to …

I am so fucking tired of being fucking tired. The End

I started back to work last Monday after an amazing three months of maternity leave (13 weeks, actually) with my two littles, baby Scarlett and my almost-4-year-old, Juliette. When I had Juliette four years ago, we were only in a position financially for me to take seven weeks off, and although it was definitely hard …

Dear Daughter: On a recent weekend, I sat down for a minute on the couch and started browsing social media. That’s when you looked over from watching TV (which you had been doing for at least an hour) and said, “Mom! You are so LAZY! It’s almost dinner time! What …

Motherhood is an elevated, high calling. It may not appear that way on the outside looking in, since we often find ourselves in humble places (whether we’re wiping bums, cleaning sticky fingers, breathing deeply amidst our frustrations or moving through difficult feelings of being undervalued or unseen). My hope is …

Have you been to the Reno River Festival in recent years? It is amazing to me how this festival has grown and changed since it started 14 years ago. How do I know it was 14 years ago? Because I vividly remember working the inaugural event the weekend that my …

Blame: Assign responsibility for a fault or wrong, condemn, accuse, assign liability, indict, incriminate. We are all living on this very Earth because of our mothers. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. I know that can be hard to remember when it has taken until 2018 for the care standards to …

It was March, and I was in about week 4 of my depression. I have always had a tendency toward depression, though in the last few years I had been pretty consistently happy. But then that kid shot up a high school in Florida. Of all the social media outlets, …

As I type this, my adorable, amazing, spectacular 4-year-old is adjacent to me. Notice I did not say “next to me”; I said, “adjacent” — in mathematical terms, “having a common vertex and a common side.” In mommy terms: touching me. So. Very. Much. Touching. My child is always touching me. …