One of my favorite, and also incredibly fascinating aspects of raising children in a big family is watching how their relationships change over the years. Jack and Zoe, being our first and 19 months apart in age, have always been very close. Their personalities and...
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One of the things that makes parenthood so wonderful, wacky, intense, complicated and challenging is the constant change that happens when kids inevitably progress through stages and ages. As soon as you have something figured out with one child, they grow out of it and...
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It occurred to me the other day that I have been carrying around diapers in bags for over nine years, pretty much straight through. My lifetime as a mother has run the gamut in so many different ways; I began as a working mom of...
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I learned fairly early on in parenthood that if I followed a natural, established path of abiding by certain standards, then the decisions made based on those values would present themselves in most situations. It’s a basic plan of decision making rooted in the very...
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We learned very early on in parenthood all about the benefits of nature and the outdoors. Jack was a very, very calm baby but on the occasion that he’d get upset, being outside under the enormous blue sky was the one thing that would calm...
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We are all in anticipation of Christmas morning. For weeks we’ve been talking with the kids about what they want to ask for from Santa Claus, what they want to give, and which traditions we will embrace in these last days that are rapidly flying...
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One of my favorite photos from my childhood is of me sitting on my mother’s vanity, looking into the mirror that I had completely smeared with her makeup. I was clad in only a diaper and dripping with what looks like face cream and baking...
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I was talking to some friends the other night about the cross-country flights I used to take when the kids were babies, about how they’d get so carsick on the way to the airport and then we’d be left soggy and stinky before we even...
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It’s that time of year again. The back-to-school season brings so many things back into our lives that I mostly didn’t realized we needed or missed during the summer. I am so caught up in the long days of having my children around me and...
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As time goes on, the kids get older and things get more complicated, it feels at times that we are completely buried; Up to our ears in papers and projects from school, stepping over boxes that haven’t been unpacked since our move in August, cleaning, cooking, and...
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Justin and I met at an alcohol-laden Christmas Party. I showed up with a handful of friends after celebrating the holidays barhopping at the infamous pubs in our hometown. It was already sort of late in the evening and the festivities were dying down when we...
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Last week was super weird. No specific reason, or maybe a ton of little reasons. My birthday was on Tuesday and for as much as I spent the last year thinking I was a year older than I am, it was a lovely surprise to...
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