Being a parent is hard.

"Did you feel the house sway?" I asked, trepidatiously. The people around me all nodded, as we peered outside the sunroom windows, staring at a blowing blanket of white snow. "I know that we all felt the house move when that cyclone passed over us, but our house is over 100 years old, so it must be ...

happy place

Do you have a happy place? A spot on this earth where you feel most at peace, or joyful, or zen, or brimming with glee? Where you feel most like you? At the moment, I have a few: In my kiddos' arms, With my head on Kenny's shoulder, St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and, Haverford College. For years, I would visit Haverford ...

Is it dark in heaven?

This morning, after dropping my daughter off for her last day of second grade, my son and I were engaged in one of our typical drive-to-school chats. "Mommy, can you tell me a scary story? How about 'The Haunted Rock' or 'The Broken Elevator in the Toy Store,' can you tell me those scary stories, and make them ...

Before 8am

As I start typing this post at 8:03am two thoughts are running through my head: 1. Please don't let there be some sort of major spill, disaster, mess, destructive episode, injury or otherwise in the five minutes that I step away to write this post (during which time I have my six-year-old "babysitting") and 2. I have already ...

Why I write.

If you follow me on any form of social media, or if you happened to have opened to the front page of Saturday's Business section of the The New York Times, or if you've talked to my parents or Pop Pop in the past few days, you will know that I had quite the exciting experience last week, ...

Dear Five-Year-Old-Daughter,

Dear Five-Year-Old-Daughter, I could write and write and write about how incredible it is--how incredulous I am--that you are about to enter Kindergarten; how I don't understand when you grew to be this size. It is mind-blowing. But, instead, I am going to tell you about the snapshot from one morning. This morning, in fact, when you ...

April Fools Day.

Today is April 1, which, for some people, is also April Fools Day. It is defined as follows: April 1, in many Western countries is traditionally an occasion for playing tricks. This custom has been observed for hundreds of years, but its origin is unknown. In my family, it has always been a totally silly day, and ...

Valentine’s Day my way.

I have made it no secret that I am actually one of those people who loves Valentine's Day. I don't love it because it is a cheap or forced excuse to celebrate love; I just don't understand not liking it. If you love someone, then tell them every day. Including on Valentine's Day. It can be ...

Jo (M)alone

My son has started this pattern of carrying some strange things around the house with him. Today, his favorites have been my toothbrush, a potholder, "his" iPhone (an old, out of service phone we use as a sound machine), a bag of quinoa and my bottle of Jo Malone "Honeysuckle and Jasmine Cologne". I think that this is supposed ...