When Celebration and Grief Collide
My daughter’s birthday is in November. As any mom, I get excited as her birthday gets near. But for me, her birthday is a time when celebration and grief collide.…
Done Trying to Be perfect: Allowing myself to be a B+ Mom
With the New Year upon us, the pressure to improve ourselves as a human and especially as a mom is constantly in our faces. However, I need to be honest…
Did You Really Lose Yourself as a Mom? Or Were You Lost Long Before?
We hear moms say it all the time… “I had children and I lost myself”. I get it. I’ve seen so many women in therapy who feel this exact same…
In Praise of Boredom: 5 ways boredom is good
Boredom: the state of feeling wearied by dullness, tedious repetition, and apathy. Synonyms include apathy, indifference, disgust, lethargy, and monotony. Thanks, dictionary people. What a downer. How can any of…
Mama, Never Give up. Keep Trying, Keep Going.
I sat down on the steps, exhausted, ready to give up believing things could get better, ready to give up trying. The feeling of fatigue covering my whole body. Wondering…
How to Have a Clean House: A Mom’s Guide to Peace With Your Home
I feel like a maid. I spend my day just cleaning up after everyone and I feel lost in the to-do list. I'm on Pinterest yet again trying to get…
Seeing Double: From My Baby Girl to Adult. 11 Things I Want You to Know.
"When we look at our big kids, we still see our babies, too. This double vision is one of the most profound privileges of parenthood. We gratefully turn to fresh…
To the Village-less Mom – I see you. I am you.
To the mom parenting without a village, I see you. I want you to know, I long for that close circle of support too. My husband and I are raising…
Kindergarten Is Calling: The Bittersweet Blessing of Letting Go
I’ve been counting down the years, watching them turn into months. Always keeping my eye on the proverbial clock that’s been ticking away since she was born. And now, according…
Tips How NOT to Pass Your New School Year Anxiety onto Your Kids
Were you one of those kids that couldn't wait to get the school supply list? Run to the store and gather all those clean crisp notebooks and markers? Well, I…
Looking Back: A Letter To Share Some Mama Wisdom
Dear Mama, You are in such an intense season of your life with these precious babies. Diapers, sleepless nights, napless days, every bodily fluid imaginable. Juggling more than 1 person's…
Stop Yelling at Your Kids: 5 Ways to Find Your Cool
A big struggle moms come to me with, as a mom mentor, is how to stop yelling at their kids. My answers and help always surprise them. It sounds like…
Life as a Stay-at-Home Mom in a Pandemic: Not What I Signed Up For
Let me start by saying I LOVE my children! Becoming a mom was not an easy journey for me and there were times I thought it might never happen. I love…
People Pleasing: Set Yourself Free From the Lies You Tell Yourself
It's subtle, people pleasing. The lies women are telling are often so close to the truth, so subtle that they go unseen, but they never go un-felt. Women are telling…
Give Voice to Maternal Exhaustion – A Story of Burnout, Betrayal and Fear
What does maternal exhaustion mean? Well, I knew that I needed to face this topic for the last six months. Instead of writing, maternal exhaustion has been where I’ve lived.…
Hurry Up and Stop Growing: A Mom’s Clashing Feelings
Two of my husband's children are acting like a**holes. Sure, they're my kids too and right now I am shifting parental ownership to their father. I am sick of the…
The Aftermath: Pressing Through the Pain to Find Healing After Trauma
Warning: traumatic birth story detailed below. Please read on with caution as the material or descriptions may be triggering. Every January, as his birthday draws near, I have a tightness…
Photo Credit: U Shine Photography- Jill Skoglund
The Universe Gifted Me a Special Needs Son
The universe gifted me a special needs son. He has a presence about him and is a bright light on my darkest days. The days I have lost all hope,…
My Dear Daughters, Always Remember That I Love You!!
“There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” – Jill Churchill I am a proud mother of three beautiful young ladies. Having all girls,…
Before You Break His Heart: A Letter to the First to Break My Son’s Heart
Dear First, Before you break his heart, will you hear me out? As I write this, there is a precious, 8-year-old boy asleep in the other room. He has a…
A Warrior Heart: Her Birth Story
It is 3:42 in the morning and I can feel her warrior heart beating against mine. I am exhausted and my body aches. It’s been less than 24 hours since…
In a Sleep Coach’s House: We Still Have Tired Nights
I do have to brag that my kiddos have been great sleepers from a very young age! But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have setbacks and tired nights here and…
The Challenge for Moms and the Childless Woman to be in Community
Moms and the childless in community? All of us crave the fulfillment of whatever we assume is missing in our lives. Otherwise, life would be practically perfect. But the challenge for…
Separation Anxiety in Children: How You Can Help
Raising kids is a high-stakes responsibility and in this age of social media and easy access to information about anything and everything, parents are easily overwhelmed with feelings of guilt…
Surviving the Adult Teen Years: One Mom’s Two Cents
One mom’s two cents to get you through those last few tumultuous adult teen years. Parenting is hard. Parenting adult teens is hella hardest. And those last few years will…
I’ll Never Sleep Again: Finding the Humor in a Sleepless Phase of Life
Ahh, sleep deprivation. A sleepless state of existence that is near and not-so-dear to my heart. As a matter of fact, I don’t know that I’ve met many individuals who…
Just One Child? Why People’s Family Sizes Are None of Your Business
In a New Year’s quest to declutter, my husband and I decided to sell our piano that had been sitting in our house collecting dust for more than a decade.…
Mommy Guilt: If You Are Giving it to Yourself, Stop it
Before I was a mom, I knew that mommy guilt was a thing. I knew to be careful if I experienced this. One thing I didn’t expect was to give…
When Grief Moves In and Unpacks Her Bags: How Grief Changed Me
When grief officially moves in and unpacks her bags, she becomes a part of every breath and every moment whether we like it our not. When she came to visit…
When Seasons Change- Deciding to Take a Break From Social Media
I was fairly young when I had my son, and none of my girlfriends were in this season of their lives. So they always seemed well put together, on time,…
A Letter to the Mama Who Didn’t Cry at School Drop Off
Dear Mama, I see you. Talking with your mama friends about your kiddos starting school this year. Them telling you how much they cried and didn’t know what to do…
Stop the Meal Plan Mayhem! 3 Ways to Make Meal Planning Do-able Even With a Busy Schedule
Raise your hand if you have a busy schedule and you find it challenging to get healthy meals on the table every night—especially ones your kids will actually eat! My…
The Secret to Doing It All: Don’t! And Five tips to help you look like you Do!
People often ask me how I “do it all” or how I “keep it all together," and I’m just going to be honest from the start and tell you my…
When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned: Healing after Having a Baby at Twenty-Three Weeks
We are coming up on five years since having a baby at twenty-three weeks gestation. Every year, my processing takes off another layer from the pain of that situation. My…
Summer Fun or Summer Bummer? 5 Steps to Help Summer Overwhelm
It’s summer! Does that mean it’s time for lots of fun in the sun or time to find a million ways to entertain your kids who are bouncing off the…
How I Conquered Mount Laundsuvius: Practical Laundry Tips For The Overwhelmed Mama
Mom life is laundry life, right? For the seven years I’ve been a mom, I have had a constant pile of laundry that needs to be washed, folded and put…
A Letter to my Daughter for her 18th Birthday
Instead of purchasing a card off the shelf, I felt like I could best honor her by writing a love note. A list of memories or things that came to…
What a Headache Taught me About my Life
April 2018 I was worried that 6 weeks of daily headaches meant I had a tumor or something major going on. I had put off calling the doctor for fear…
The Big G and how it nearly wrecked me- Finding myself at thirty-eight
Nearly two years ago, I took the biggest trip of a lifetime. I flew to Bolivia in search for my brother who was left abandoned and homeless in the streets…
My Dear Child Thank You. You Made Me Human.
As long as I can remember I had always heard the stories you will never be the same after becoming a mother. I would always nod in approval and give…
The We Podcast #3: Guest Maryanna Brunkhorst
On this episode of The We Podcast I interview Maryanna Brunkhorst. Maryanna is a writer, dancer, explorer, lifelong learner, woman, and veteran. She talks to us about her story and…