Oh Captain, My Captain

Originally published on August 12, 2014 *** I still remember the day in the fall of 2011. "YOU haven't seen Dead Poet's Society? YOU? It's like made for you!" My friend said to me as we watched our girls toddle around my living room. "It's all about poetry and literature and living deliberately. You must see it." You see, I ...

Back to School

In thinking of a word to describe how I am feeling this morning, "bittersweet" was the first to come to mind. But, upon looking up the actual definition of the word, I realize that "bittersweet" (which, BY THE BY, is also the name of a poisonous Eurasian woody vine (Solanum dulcamara) of the nightshade family that ...

Last First Day

I recently re-posted a piece that I wrote back in 2011 for a site geared towards pregnancy, parenthood and the like. I called it "Back to School Blues" and it was a combination of advice from a teacher (my column on the site was called "The Little Scholar") and my feelings as a new parent. I ...

Dear Current Husband

So, today started like this: https://instagram.com/p/49AmvkSz_2/?taken-by=mommyeverafter And, by the way, hashtag no nap. And our son just figured out how to watch Family Guy on the iPad. He's in stitches. So, it got me thinking... and since I have become a dedicated songwriter, I started to sing the Meghan Trainor song in my head. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that ...

Confidence

Confidence. It is a word used so often in our vernacular that I almost forget what it means, or, at the very least, I never stop to really and truly contemplate it as a word or concept. But confidence is this huge thing; it is what parents and teachers are supposed to instill in our kids; it is the ...

Summer Camp, for me.

(Featured Image from JKCP Xploration Showcase, Summer 2014) "JKCP Summer, it's a place for glee..." 19 years ago, I crafted those words, as I was responsible for writing our camp's theme song. After an unsuccessful one month and four days at overnight camp, I was a bit lost, until I found my personal mecca in the form of ...

Shade Sunless

(and doing something that scared me). About a month ago, I decided, out of nowhere, really, that I needed a tan. I don't know if it was something about my impending thirtieth birthday or the party that I would be throwing to celebrate, or if I was feeling like I needed a little boost, but I was ...

Haters Gonna Hate

Last week I had two momentous achievements in my career as a writer: First, I had a story published on a very popular, national website, exposing my writing to thousands of new readers. Second, I had my first encounter with haters. I have been writing MEA since the birth of my daughter in 2010. Since that time, I believe ...

I guess this thing is growing up.

This week, there was a really lively and interesting debate under one of my Facebooks posts that was about getting rid of toxic friendships. I think that this post resonated with so many of us, which is why I felt so compelled to share it on my page. And it is funny. I decided, just ...