belly born. science slicing windows into nature’s womb, a kind of miracle. hours clocked – long days, longer nights. by design i cannot, for the life of me, remember the work it took to raise me. only when i look at my daughter, tucked into her own bed, do I know how my mother…
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My goal in writing is to be ‘gut-honest’. That means I tell tough truths, hopefully in loving ways. Not because I think I’m all that and a bag of chips, but because I know the human experience is a common one and we learn from each other. In that gut-honest spirit, I need to say…
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Ben and I always joke that first birthday parties are just as much a celebration for the parents as the children. “We all made it!” We certainly felt that way when Nora Heather’s first birthday rolled around. As much as we have enjoyed our little light, she’s thrown us all sorts of new challenges! Just…
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Truthfully, I was never one of those gals who longed to become a wife and mother. I was never hostile to the idea. But it wasn’t the stuff of my daydreams. Traveling the world and climbing the corporate ladder, kicking buns and taking names? Those were my daydreams. So when I found myself married much younger…
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As a twenty-something millennial, I suffer from self-diagnosed ‘Elizabeth Bennett Syndrome’. In other words, the propensity to insert myself as the heroine of every story I read. From animated princesses to plucky schoolgirls, the adventures of admirable women have been fixtures in imagination. And, naturally, I am inclined to interchange my name synonymously with theirs.…
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At the beginning of 2016, I decided my word for the year would be ‘No’. Very flashy. (With my infrequent blogging, you might assume I’ve been doing a swell job of saying ‘NO!’) Truthfully, it’s been difficult to hear myself declining requests over and over again. I want to be Yes-Woman. Book club? Sure! I’m…
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When I found out that I was going to meet Gloria Furman at #TGCW16, my husband took great pains to remind me that Gloria and I aren’t besties. I can be forgiven! Familiar is exactly how you feel after reading one of Gloria’s books; her latest, Missional Motherhood, is no exception. (Update: Gloria did graciously spend a few moments talking…
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Being a writer, I often process life through writing. The births of my daughters remain two of the most profound experiences of my life. Experiences that taught me so much, and continue to teach with each retelling. What a treat it was to process Nora’s birth story with my voice! The Birth Hour invited me…
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My roles Virtual Assistant and Birth Doula are highly non-traditional, but unmistakably God-orchestrated. As a VA, I work with clients on a variety of online projects to ensure the success of their businesses: preparing blog posts, creating images, managing social media, and so on. This is a bread-and-butter job, it provides necessary supplemental income for…
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Can you help but eavesdrop in a hair salon? I mean really. It comes with the territory. A decidedly woman-centric space, the hum of gossip is just as impossible to ignore as the droning hair dryers. Waiting for my semi-monthly brow wax (you’re welcome), I couldn’t help but watch as client after client met with…
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