From the outside looking in, I had checked all the boxes. But the question that started buzzing underneath was: “Were these even my boxes to check?

But walking the trail today, creation itself seemed to whisper something simpler. You don’t have to control the forest for it to flourish. And maybe motherhood works the same way.

In practice, healthy parenting doesn’t always look like a perfectly regulated response in the moment. Sometimes it looks like coming back later — when everyone’s nervous system has settled…

I wasn’t just leaving a store. I was beginning to mourn a season of my life that has very clearly passed. There will be no more “Mommy’s Number One Fan” onesies. No more tiny jeans…

And then, in a moment of half-humor and half-honesty — while taking a decompression walk — I found myself wondering: Could video games have helped?

I keep asking myself: Is it just me… or are kids actually more ill-behaved at Christmas?

Sure enough, a few aisles later I end up in same vicinity as this mom again, but this time I hear a crinkle…a ripe...and then the unmistakable sound of what had to be a thousand tiny beads…

Some sociologists have actually referred to early motherhood as a period of role engulfment — when one identity eclipses others, sometimes unintentionally…

Have you ever laughed at a meme, maybe liked it, but stopped short of resharing it? Not because it wasn’t funny — but because you started to wonder what your followers might think.

Before motherhood, I had a life. I had identity. A college degree, a career, marriage, a house, and disposable income. It all looked pretty shiny. But when we began talking about having kids…

Before I was a mother, I thought I knew who I was. I thought identity was something you could define - career, relationships, beliefs. Then I became a mom…