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The Review That Made It Real
When I hit publish on Tyler Never Cried, I thought I’d already lived every emotion that book could drag out of me. Grief, pride, exhaustion, relief, they all had their turn. But nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to seeing that first review. It was just a few sentences. But in them, I saw twenty years of my life…
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Burnt Popcorn, Cold Coffee, and New Bangs
The day started out perfect the kind of rare, quiet morning you want to trap in a snow globe. I woke up next to my two youngest after a girls’ sleepover because they’re still young enough to think mom snuggles are the best part of the night. We giggled, watched cartoons, and I actually styled my…
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Maybe This is Peace
Forty-one came in hard. Like, neck-spasm, can’t-turn-my-head, parenting-a-toddler kind of hard. Between finalizing Tyler Never Cried (which, by the way, is now officially live on Amazon and going into mass distribution Tuesday, his birthday) and hunching over my computer for three days straight, I think I became one with my office chair. There’s something poetic about writing through…
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The One-Armed, Toothbrushless, Potty-Training Kinda Day
You ever have one of those days that starts with so much promise you could almost hear the inspirational soundtrack behind it? The coffee is hot. The house is quiet. You wake up early, tackle the to-do list, even make pancakes with fruit and sprinkles like some Pinterest-level version of yourself. And then somehow, it…
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The Square Pumpkin and the Season of Us
For five years now, we’ve gone to the same pumpkin patch. The same hay bales. The same overpriced pumpkin treats. The same “perfect photo spot” that never quite works out because someone’s crying, someone’s sticky, and someone (dad) is wondering how much longer I have to pretend to enjoy the petting zoo. But every year,…
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Grace at Forty One
Forty-one doesn’t come with balloons or a guidebook. It just sort of arrives, quietly like a text message you weren’t expecting but somehow needed. It’s the year I stopped trying to prove myself and started trying to know myself. The year I realized that peace doesn’t look like having it all together; it looks like…
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The Day the Wi-Fi Died: A Modern Apocalypse
It started like any other morning…until the internet went out. Suddenly, the house fell eerily silent, except for the faint hum of smart appliances realizing they were no longer smart. The fridge blinked in confusion, the coffee pot refused to brew, and the washer sat frozen mid-cycle like it had lost the will to live. The…
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Bandtober Month~~The Part of the Cult They Didn’t Warn You About
Welcome, fellow survivors, to the chaotic, caffeine-fueled world of Bandtober. If you’ve ever been sucked into the whirlwind of high school band life (especially during the notorious month of October) you already know: this is not for the weak, the well-rested, or the glitter-averse. For the uninitiated, consider this your warning: proceed with caution, humor, and a…
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The Invisible Weight
Today wasn’t about bleachers and pretty pictures. It was work. We set up equipment, hauled props, and ran when things broke. Between prelims and finals, we patched up bruised girls, handed out water, and watched over overheated kids. There were no stands to sit in, no chance to just be a spectator ,only to stay…
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The Day That Sucked (And Why We Danced Anyway)
Some days, coffee and Twizzlers aren’t strong enough to fix it. Last night bled into this morning with Harper waking at 3 a.m. from a nightmare about a spider on her head. I was still hunched over my laptop, uploading a book to Ingram, running on fumes. By the time Harper went back to sleep,…
Crumbs and Chaos 