“If it takes a village to raise a child, it can also take one to make one. The fact that I’ve made it to the other side does not mean I’ve forgotten the road that took me here.” And so, I am sharing on Her View From Home and I’m staying thankful as best I can. Click the picture below to read my story. *Thinking out loud.

In her notes on her debut novel, Lilli de Jong, Janet Benton writes, “The difficult work of mothers has long been drastically under-recognized. I wanted to tell a story in which women’s strength was crucial to the world’s surviving and thriving—as it truly is and always has been.” How could I not write about review about a book that is meant to celebrate all our hard work? How can we not cheer along with Benton …

There are many scientific reasons why adolescence is the worst time in your life, second only to menopause (and maybe even nosing ahead). At least you’re not spending menopause trapped in a confined space with other menopausal people. At least you can take it out on your spouse, kids, and co-workers. At least you’ve got a glass of cabernet at the end of the day to stave off the malaise. Adolescence in the 90s was …

I dreamed that my husband didn’t recognize me. We were the same age we are now and I tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and I went in for a kiss and he recoiled, politely and with great care. And then he smiled at me, pried my fingers off his arm, and turned back to whatever faceless person he had been talking to. It was that smile that did it. It’s the smile he …

The first scary movie I ever saw was “Jaws”. It was a July afternoon in Oklahoma, and I was visiting my cousins. I don’t ever remember a hotter summer than that one. The heat rose off the roads in waves and the tar that zigzagged over the cracks in the sidewalks grew soft and stuck to our flip flops. By noon, we retreated indoors, sunburned and tired from running through the sprinklers and hungry for …

So, marriage. Just the sound of it rings heavy, doesn’t it? The weight of the two syllables feels lofty with ideals. We want self-enlightenment and security and passion and magic and connection. But then there’s just so much pressure to get it right and not screw it up before we even get started. Then we spend a lifetime trying to mold ourselves and our partner into the coupling we envisioned. It seemed simpler before, back …

Occam’s razor is the philosophical theory of parsimony. In Latin it reads, “pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate,” which loosely translates to, “don’t assume anything extra must exist.” It is, as William of Occam put it, to take a razor to the problem and shave off the unnecessary bits. In short, keep it simple. Here’s an example: If you’re in the house by yourself, and you hear the creak of a door, it’s probably not …

–Every Thanksgiving, my dad would push the family out the door right after the feast when any normal human would burp and take a nap. He’d grab his jacket from the hook on the wall, clap his hands together, and issue the decree we all knew was coming, “Okay, time for a walk!” There was no use fighting it. Only the elderly got a pass. No one would get pie until we’d done our time …

My five-year old came home with dirt on his nose – one long dark swipe down the side, like he’d spent his afternoon up a chimney. His dad had taken him to the park with his twin brother and sister. Early October afternoons look a lot like summer ones here, hot and muggy with the whine of insects, but the fact that you know cold weather is coming propels you out the door. It puts …

You’ve been working on a project for so long that it no longer makes sense. It no longer feels unique or revolutionary or even coherent. The brilliant idea that got you going in the first place now sounds inane. How did anyone think you were ever smart? What is true in the workplace is true in parenting too. In the beginning, you’re running on endorphins and noble statutes that you feel certain will become the …