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.…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
"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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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,…
“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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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 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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…