I sat on the floor, face to face with an 18 month old little boy. He was trying to put a circle shaped toy into a square shaped hole.

He tried again and again and again, and it wouldn't fit.  

Frustration strained his face. His hands gripped tightly around the little...

"You can each pick one thing" I said to each of my girls as we entered the store. 

With that statement I released any attachment to what that item was.

Whether it was healthy or junk, a tube of bubbles or colored, lined index cards. (Even as a tiny Caroline already had a thing for...

It was a quiet summer Saturday morning.  I was up early, a cup of hot coffee in my hand while momming mantras ran through my mind: I will stay calm today. I WILL stay calm today. I can do this. 

The day before with my 4 year old had been hard. The day before that, even harder....

"Ok, it's time to clean up. Help me put these blocks back in the box please."

I was wrapping up a home visit and the recently-turned one year old looked at me and smiled. 

She then did these three things in quick succession:

1. Picked up a block
2. Put it in the wooden box
3. And dumped all the...

“Mom, what do you think I should do?” 

My daughter Caroline just started her first semester at Temple University, Japan. Her night is my day, and vice versa, so I often wake up to messages, pictures, or voice memos from her.  It’s a great way to start the day...

"I don't know but I'll figure it out."

This is what my then 18 year old daughter Caroline told me after arriving in Japan only to find that the Aupair job she had lined up had fallen through.

I world away I was in a bit of mama panic and did what I counsel parents never to do ‍ peppered her...

 How many emotional triggers do you field in a day? Don’t answer that, because you likely can’t.

Your toddlers and preschoolers are master button pushers and trigger your conscious and subconscious reactions, often without even trying.

You want to sit inside a level of...

You’ve heard this quip, right? It’s along the lines of, put your money where your mouth is and no pain - no gain.  

In plain speak, we tend to take action when we feel invested. 

Dear Reader, I wrote this on September 4th, 2018. Reading through it nearly three years to the day, I take it as a much needed reminder that every season of our life is just that - and then there is another. Today, I still work really hard but I’m not strung out, and I control my time. To...

I just finished listening to Brene Brown's book, Daring Greatly, and promptly burst into tears.

I nearly made it too. But the last four minutes did me in.

You know when, back in the day, you went to a movie theatre and it was a tear jerker but you kept it together, so as not to blubber cry...

All I’ve ever wanted to do was be a parent. If you follow me anywhere on line, you already know that. If not, I mean… well the pics say it all. (Yes, my Cabbage Patch Kid had a first and middle name.)

Blood may be thicker than water, but that’s science and this is spirit. ...

To Mother (v) to love and learn in equal measure.

I am an only child.

This is relevant because I really didn’t want to be. In fact, I made it clear with unnecessary repetition to my mother that the lack of a sibling was unacceptable!

My mother, however, was not an only child. ...