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You’ll Never Guess Who Gave Me My Best Christmas Present

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: You’ll never guess who gave me the best Christmas present this year. Turns out it wasn’t my husband. He and I actually don’t do traditional gifts, choosing instead to give each other trips and travel. And no, the best gift did not come from my in-laws, though I am in love with the knee-length denim apron they gave me

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Family, I Screwed Up, Parenting, The Hard Stuff

It’s Going To Be One Messy Year

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: Well, hello there, New Year you, who promises to be 12 months, 365 days, 8,766 hours, 525,948,766 of mess. It’s not that I’m starting the year as a Negative Nelly. It’s actually more about being grateful for what and who I have, which leads to reality, which in my case, and perhaps yours, means accepting life is messy. Anyone

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Conversations With My Dog

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: I learned something new about one of my favorite people in the world this week.     By favorite people, I mean my dog.     You don’t see dogs as people and think those us who do are on the wrong side of crazy?  Save your time, read no more.     But if you’re like me and know your dog

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Life Lessons Took Me Long Time To Learn, Marriage, The Hard Stuff

There’s Never Enough Time When You Love Someone

By popular demand, I’m re-posting this column on time and love which ran last July so that it shows up on this WordPress site.  Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio. A stranger took my breath away this week. What would you do if a woman you just met told you, “I’m really not a risk taker,” followed by, “I married a man who told me on our first date

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Family, Parenting

Thinking About Someone Special On My First Mother’s Day

             I think about her every day. We are forever linked through one of the greatest joys of my life. And I’ll never be able to tell her. That’s what I find myself thinking about this, my first Mother’s Day as a mother. I’ll never be able to say “Thank you” to the woman who started the job I’m blessed to continue. She is my daughter’s other mother. I’ve shared here in this column how I’ve recently come to

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Marriage

When Marriage Means Learning To Love The Ugly

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: I did something this week I swore I would never do, managing to break not one, but two vows in the process. And it’s all part of the journey I share with you on a regular basis—what many of you have figured out before me—compromises you make as a wife and mother. For this broken vow story, you and

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Why Can’t My Husband & I Find Direction?

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column: My husband and I are struggling to find direction. I don’t mean direction like agreeing on common values for our family, how we raise our kids, or where we will retire. No, this struggle is far more immediate and somehow more challenging than that. When I say we’re struggling to find direction, I mean just that, or rather, find

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Oh Yes, I Did: Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column:     Oh yes, I did.      Does it count that my intentions were good as a clearly pregnant woman and her husband sat next to me on a long cross country flight last week?      I got up from my aisle seat so that they could make it to their seats in the middle and by the window.     

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Here’s My Absence Slip

“So, where have you been, young lady?” No matter how old we get, there still is some splainin’ to do when you’ve been gone for awhile. I’ve shared before how my husband has this crazy hobby of collecting millions of frequent flyer miles without traveling.  Most days of the year, it drives us crazy because he refuses to let us ever use cash. But it does allow us to go on some pretty remarkable trips.  We’re just back from taking

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When A Cat With Less Is More Than A Cat

 Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column:   I told a friend this week to cut off her cat’s leg. Hold on, before you get PETA or mental health officials on your speed dial, let me explain. My friend’s kitty, Eloise, was injured by a dog or some critter who had chomped down on the sweet girl’s back right leg. I certainly wasn’t suggesting my friend

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