There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. ~Ernest Hemingway Every few months I get a catalog in the mail from our local high school's extension program. They offer hundreds of classes on everything from yoga to finance. Three years ago I signed up for my fi...

"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love." ~ Lao Tzu I love that we've all embraced that it's the thought that counts, and that it's better to give than to receive. I think, though, we're only part way to finishing that ...

Three years ago today was the worst day of my life. My mother died. I wasn't there, so I'll never know first-hand what it was like to see her pass into eternity, and part of me feels cheated that I wasn't present and another part of me feels fortunate that she was alive in my last memory of he...

This is where his wedding ring used to rest. Nestled on the fourth finger of his left hand is where it belongs. It was supposed to be there for decades to come, but tonight it hangs from my neck. I took this picture on our last date. He had just come off an insanely busy project at work. We ha...

My husband and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on June 2, 2011. As a joint gift to each other, we traveled to London and Paris sans kids for the 11 days leading up to our anniversary. Ten feels special and worthy of congratulations. Being married in double digits isn't easy, and it would be ...

My good friend Kim and I are in the Big Easy this weekend to speak about 21st Century Families at the Mom 2.0 conference with the amazing Mir, Polly, and Deb. I'm not fully operational (I've been battling an arse-kicking virus all week, and my normally latent asthma seems to have kicked in jus...

My 6-year-old daughter, aka the Schmoopette, is about to join a brand-new Daisy Troop at her elementary school. In it will be several of her closest friends in the world (we mothers were pretty much commanded by our kindergartners to enroll them -- and it's hard to fight a pack of pleading fiv...

If you're wondering why I haven't posted in a month, the answer is simple -- I've been too busy reading. Reading Young Adult books, to be exact. This was a complete shock to me, since I never read YA books as an actual teen, preferring to turn my nose up and read Serious Books and Classic Auth...

I'm so late with this, but I think it's important to stop and count blessings. Even though Thanksgiving weekend is long gone, here are five quick reasons I'm thankful right this minute. Everyone in my family -- nuclear and extended to my siblings and their kids -- has everything they *need.* ...

I started this blog 5 years ago today, on October 9, 2005, with a simple plea: "Send Airbeds!" I started blogging to help our community efforts to assist people in Louisiana who had been hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. I had been sending numerous long-winded, information-laden emails to my lo...

The kindergarten classes at Bito’s elementary school put on a musical recently. I knew Bito had been practicing for it -- I caught him humming the song his class was to sing. I also knew that there was a strong possibility that Bito would not end up performing with his class at all. BC (Before...

After my daughter was born, I became more conscious of how I should approach race with her. With an Asian-American and a black father, she would be constantly question about her ethnic background. Perhaps I was a little naive to think people would be as rude as to ask, "Is she yours?" After h...

I loved him. No, I adored him. When he first joined our family, he felt strong, he felt safe, he felt like home. I eagerly fell into step as his most vocal adorer; I unabashedly, proudly, bravely sang his praises whenever I had the opportunity: He’s so smooth. He’s so sleek. He’s so cool...

Yes, it is true. I killed the family fish. And it was an accident. It all started quite innocently once afternoon when I went to clean the fish bowl. We don’t have an aquarium, filter, rocks, or even multiple fish. Our setup included one goldfish, a plastic plant, and a 1 gallon bowl. ...

I should've known better than to doubt my friend Jen, who presciently told me that it take three years to fully acclimate yourself to a new place, especially if you loved the place you used to live. Ask anyone who's met me since moving down to the DC area -- be it a fellow blogger, a mom at t...

Some mothers aspire to be the cool neighborhood mom. They want all of the kids to want to come and hang out at their house. I've heard the upsides. If all the kids are at your house you know exactly where your children are and precisely what they are doing. Point taken. My kids have been in e...

In 2004, I put down my chalk after spending a decade as a public school educator. The following five years found me in a school only to vote each Election Day. Then Bito started kindergarten last fall, and I have become involved in public school education once again. Only this time, I'm on...