After we almost swore off travelling with our kids for good, I reached out to several friends and asked if travelling with their kids made them also question their life choices.  The “good” news is the answer was mostly yeses all around, phew! Misery loves company, am I right? Duplicating Success Then in 2020, we […]

When Maddie was tiny, she looked at me and asked: “Mommy, do you even love me?”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀The question shattered me. I wanted to whisper to my sweet girl, “yes, baby, with all my heart, I love you, but mommy doesn’t value herself.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀We can never prepare ourselves for how our kids will shine a floodlight on the […]

Being the logistics manager for tiny humans can make you believe nag is your default setting. Don’t believe the lies!⁣My mantra, for when life throws all the potty training accidents, the uncertainty of raising my kids during a global pandemic and sleepless nights at me, goes as follows:⁣⁣I love my kids; ⁣I love my kids, […]

A few months ago, I came across the quote, ” The opposite of depression is vitality.” ⁣⁣It resonated deeply for me because I had been working so hard to rediscover my zest for life. ⁣⁣Flash forward to this COVID world, and I can feel my vitality slipping away and my inner critic fighting to retake […]

Last month, Christine called her husband (who was away for work) and couldn’t stop crying. Through tears, she said, “This isn’t working for me or our kids.” The “this” she was referring to is her stay-at-home-mom life—the life she’s been living for the last eight years. “Every bit of me wanted to be a mother, […]

Okay, momma’s one day until Halloween. Does anyone else feel the annoying itch to provide epic holiday treats for every damn holiday? I do, 100%. Another of those pre-motherhood fantasies that I’ve learned are not realistic. This year I managed to talk myself off the cookie baking/decorating until mid-night ledge. Old Christine would have done […]

Look how sweetly the big two are interacting. ⁣⁣What this photo doesn’t show is the majority of the time, these two are hell-bent on destroying each other, physically and mentally. ⁣⁣The week leading up to Halloween is always chaotic. There are so many parties, so many expectations, costumes to organize and treats to prepare. Matt […]

We were several weeks deep in trading illnesses back and forth between the five of us. My skin was burning and itching with a severe flare-up of psoriasis. We’d just been blindsided with unexpected health news, and the next steps felt unclear. ⁣⁣The thought came that may be slipping under the bathwater would be easier […]

I have a secret. Not a well-kept secret, but it’s something I usually keep to myself. I’m a P.T.A. mom, and it’s something I dreamt of becoming long before I had kids.   I once told an ex-boyfriend that I couldn’t make a sexy video with him because it might ruin my chance to be […]

The day the pandemic was announced, I sat in my dining room, flooded with shame. ⁣⁣My first thoughts were how I would survive with my three kids and no escape to recharge.⁣⁣How had I become the type of mother when faced with a global pandemic that panicked about spending large amounts of time with her […]