I like my life.  Maybe it’s not everything that it could be, but it’s a good life. I’ve realized that it’s fluid and ever-changing. When I get stressed, I try to take a deep breath and a step back. I examine the situation and figure out how to make it work. I flip it somehow. With age I’ve learned the importance of being flexible.
I read today that older people are happier than younger people. This comes from the American Psychologoical Association of Toronto, Canada and a Pew Research Study.
I accept this idea completely. I have a teen. She is a beautiful …read more

This Summer has been the Summer of My Daughter’s Broken Heart. She’s experienced periodic break-ups and make-ups with her boyfriend of just under a year. He lived with us for six months, when his mom turned him out, so sometimes my feelings about the kids get a little colored by position as mother (or substitute mother) to  both of them.
At this point, however, I’m clearly all-in on the Bay side.  The kid is in agony, grieving her lost love, and sad. She started school this week and is still in constant contact with him via cell phone or the computer.
Here’s a purely selfish thought …read more

I have had a bit of trouble writing relationships this Summer. My daughter, Bailey, my oldest girl at 17, has had a really tough time. It’s been very hard to watch her struggle, to watch her go through so much pain.
However, it appears that things are looking up for her. I can’t fix what happened to her this Summer. I can’t make it hurt less, but I can encourage her about the future, which is what I hope I’ve been doing.

Yesterday, on her birthday, her father called her. She had not spoken to him in a couple of years. In …read more

I will not lie to you, I’m one of those horrible mothers that tend to protect their children as much as they can. So now
that I’ve come clean I can tell you that I’m slowly, very slowly, learning to let them go…ya know let them do things on their own and grow doing it.
In the past I remember the worry I felt when (living on the base) I allowed my oldest son to walk to the gas station by himself. Now on the base this was the hot spot for kids to get snacks, candy bars or the occasional milk …read more

How many of you have children? Oh looks like everyone here, well that’s good. So have you ever felt like you’ve shown up or did something that shamed your child somehow? This morning I got a call from a neighbor asking if I was going to show up at the School’s Field day. I quickly came up with a plan in order to get down there and surprise my two oldest. BalletGirl (age was still disappointed that I’d never shown up at the school for lunch, but in all fairness the school told me I couldn’t bring the younger …read more

Tonight I learned a lesson in parenting, the one where you learn that your child is ready to move on. You know to grow up and no longer be your baby. What happened? While it was a fun night of excitement and laughter there was a bit of sadness mixed in when my oldest daughter (8 year old) told me she didn’t want to do something.
Yes, this is a normal child thing but for me it was more than that. I didn’t understand why she didn’t want to do this thing. It was something she’d always loved to do, she …read more

Why is it my 8 year old daughter can’t wait to grow up? She’s constantly talking about boys, which I can go with. But when she starts talking about getting a boyfriend and getting married or even having kids my stomach gets all turned in knots. Kids these days are growing up so fast that it makes me question why.
As an 8-year-old I remember running around to spend the night at my best friend Stacy’s house or hanging in my bedroom with Barbies. How many of you remember those days? Things were just a bit more innocent, there were years before …read more

Have you ever had one of those moments where you’re simply stunned by how fast your kids are growing up?
While at a family dinner over the weekend, I watched a little toddler boy in his baseball cap and with sippy cup in hand run for his mommy when he realized he didn’t recognize everyone adoring him.
At that point, I looked to the left and right of me at my own boys who are now within an inch or two of being as tall as I am at 5’7” and wished so much I could travel back in time and recapture …read more