My Partner in Life, Not Just in Parenting
Three years ago, I took my firstborn daughter for a walk when it was ten degrees. I bundled her up in an Eskimo snowsuit and wrapped one of my scarves around the lower half of her face, so that you
Life’s Bittersweet Symphony
The September night we wed, my husband and I slow-danced. All I remember is how the two of us rocked back and forth as the crystals embroidering the hem of my dress cracked beneath his rental shoes. My husband is
“Kissmass Yights!” & Gratitude
The receipt checker, as I exited Sam’s Club, muttered beneath her breath, “I might just kill someone today.” The woman directed this comment to me while nodding at the back of the man who’d cut in front of the line
We Don’t Have a Whole Lot in Common (and That’s Okay)
Our daughters were whining; the back of the van was filled with groceries; a cardboard box was on the floorboard, containing three leftover slices of mushroom pizza. My husband turned on the radio to drown out the noise or to
Watching the World Go By
“Hey, Honey,” the cashier said. “Got any plans for the weekend?” I was so caught off-guard, I almost laughed. “This is my second weekend here.” She smiled. “Oh, you like it?” I explained that I was actually returning to Tennessee after living in
Life’s Non-linear Adventure
It’s 9:37 on a Saturday night, and I’m confined to my toddler’s bedside, which is actually my bedside, because she declares she is scared of the new nursery. Whenever I glance over at her by the light of the computer screen,
Going the Distance
Barn swallows are writing invisible calligraphy in the azure sky, and the unglaciered hills in the distance are brilliant, summer green. Hummingbirds are sipping nectar from the purple flower baskets hanging from the eaves. An abandoned windmill, in the next
Setting Our Broken World Right
This afternoon, as we waited for the results of my husband’s MRI and CAT scan, I looked around at the light flooding through Mayo Clinic’s wall of windows, at the pigeons pecking the flat roof of the building below, at
The Ring
My sister-in-law, for my twenty-ninth birthday, mailed me a tiny gold ring inset with a freshwater pearl. Her cards are always the best—each square inch of paper filled with words of encouragement—and in that card she told me I was
Why We’re Moving Back
Today, Father’s Day, seems the appropriate time to write that our family is moving back to Tennessee, because the reconciliation of family is what’s driving this return. Before we moved to Wisconsin in November 2014, I stood in the carport with