Understanding Introverts
I am an extrovert, my husband, not so much! Up until the past few weeks I have seen this as a personality flaw, which needed to be fixed. My personality was clearly better and the more he could conform to me, the better we would be. Such maturity, I know. I believe our culture is biased towards outgoing, extroverted people. The educational philosophies that dictate our schools mandate cooperative learning and group projects. In my graduate program, not one class went by without...
Read MoreYoung at Heart
I have always had an adventurous spirit. It got me into a great deal of trouble when I was young. The trouble is, I still think of myself as young but my husband keeps telling me that we are old. Though I refuse to believe him, there are growing signs that indicate he might be on to something. When you are young if you fall down the stairs (not that that has ever happened to my children who are always under my very careful, watchful eye), you literally bounce right back. Cry for a minute or...
Read MoreSharing Not Comparing
February 14th came and went and my Facebook feed was filled with beautiful Valentines of all kinds. One extremely talented friend had handcrafted little boards for her sweet babies with adjectives describing them. Another busy momma had personally cut scalloped hearts out of organic brown card stock and colored them each unique and ornate. Of course, there was most likely an organic granola bar attached to it as well. I did not post pictures of the Valentine’s my kids brought to their...
Read MoreConfessions: Keeping It Real
When we had our second child everyone we met would gush over the kids and tell us we had the perfect family, a daughter and a son. I remember telling a friend I was pregnant with my third, and her response was, “Oh no!” I assured her that my husband and I were actually quite happy with the news and she quickly back-peddled. It was at that moment I realized that the rest of the world thinks we are off our rockers for wanting a large family. I came from a family of 9 children, so a big...
Read MoreRemember When
There are peals of laughter drifting in from the living room followed by squeals and the patter of little footsteps. I know this is going to end badly, with something broke or someone crying, but I can’t help myself to enjoy the sound of my children enjoying each other. Nothing makes my heart gladder. Mothering is not always filled with moments like these. It is usually the mundane of cooking, cleaning, wiping, teaching, disciplining . . . but enjoying; now that makes it all...
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