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What’s in a Word?

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 November and December were tough on me. Despite good intentions and a true attempt at planning, my holiday efforts were hurried and sloppy and I won’t bore you with details. I know I’m not alone. As Allison Carter so perfectly wrote about in her blog, I Failed at Christmas, the holiday is no longer about me. My responsibility now is to be the person who’s creating memories for my family and I’m honored to do it – even if it literally kicks me in the ass. On December 26th, I woke up a new person. Quite literally, I felt lighter. Continue reading What’s in a Word? →

Reading

My Favorite Books of 2015

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By now, I’m certain that you’re bored by all of the “best books of 2015” posts. There seem to be a lot of them this year (or I’m friends with more bloggers than I was last year). This is the fourth year I’ve compiled my list – and I don’t label my choices as the BEST, because it’s obviously subjective. I haven’t read every book published this year. My reading tastes are varied, but my favorite reads tend to be women’s fiction, which some literary readers poo-poo. I’m more than willing to go down the rabbit hole of war, famine, disease, and grief for the sake of a good story, but for the most part, I like to spend my time in the Shangri-La of happily ever-after. But I also love inspiring nonfiction, American history, and funny and interesting memoirs of people whom I admire or are curious about. Continue reading My Favorite Books of 2015 →

Gratitude, Personal

Dear Holiday Allie: Chill-lax!

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A few nights ago, the husband hesitantly asked me when I was going to find my Christmas spirit. I didn’t even get mad at him – because he’s right. I don’t have the spirit. I’ve been having a really tough time this holiday season. I don’t know why. I keep blaming it on my holiday to-do list, but I certainly don’t have any more to do than other moms. And I don’t work full-time, so I should be somewhat ahead of the game. I ordered my Christmas cards in OCTOBER – and yet I was up late last night writing out the last bunch. Such poor time management. I bought all the ingredients for baking cookies, and then lost interest and turned the reigns over to Audie (although I still got stuck with clean-up duty). It took me four days to decorate the tree, even though the kids really helped this year. I’m done Christmas shopping, but only because I have no desire to buy more presents. They’ll get what they get and they’ll like it! Of course I haven’t wrapped one present for my family yet – and I LOVE wrapping presents. R just came into my office and shook his head at the pile of bags and boxes commenting, “You’re going to be all stressed out on Christmas Eve, aren’t you?” Oh, I hope not. I need to shake to Grinch off. Continue reading Dear Holiday Allie: Chill-lax! →

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Books of My Life: Allison Carter

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Allison-Barrett-Carter1[1] I consider Allison Barrett Carter to be my big sister in the blogging world. This is ironic – because she’s actually much younger than me, not that we’re counting. I “met” Allison a few years ago, when she commented on a blog post I wrote about the first anthology published by the HerStories Project, which featured one of her essays. A cyber friendship was born. Allison was a tremendous help to me when I redesigned my site a few years ago. Her wealth of blogging knowledge was invaluable and helped me get published on other sites. We finally met each other for real at a conference last year and she’s a blast to hang out with. Continue reading Books of My Life: Allison Carter →