-
The Year I Lost a Lot and Found Myself Anyway
f This is my last Tuesday post of the year, and it’s longer than usual. Not because I couldn’t edit myself. Because some years don’t deserve to be wrapped up neatly. Loss Came First This year took things from me. It took my Nanny, the woman who loved me before I knew how to love myself.…
-
The House After Everyone’s Asleep (Or So I Think)
I stay up late for the quiet. I tell myself it’s self-care. A sacred, silent retreat after the house finally exhales. Except Harper sleeps in my bed. And somehow, somehow, even asleep, she is still touching me. Her feet dig into my back like a nightly massage from hell. Not soothing. Not gentle. Just tiny heels…
-
The Magic Nobody Sees
Christmas morning smells like coffee that’s already cold and cinnamon rolls someone else will remember eating. The living room explodes in paper and joy and noise, and the kids glow like the whole world showed up just for them. They don’t see the weeks before this moment. They’re not supposed to. They don’t see the…
-
I Hired a Babysitter to Wrap Gifts and Somehow Ended Up at CVS With a Giant Santa
Today was the day. The day I scheduled. The day I paid for. The day I mentally rehearsed like a hostage negotiator. I hired a babysitter. I finished my chores. I painted the bathroom drywall repair from the remodel (because of course I remodeled something right before Christmas). I put on cozy clothes. I poured a…
-
Unbothered, Not Unhinged
When I was in my twenties, there were women I quietly admired. They didn’t rush. They dressed for comfort, not approval. They said “no” without apologizing or offering a five-point explanation. They didn’t seem bothered by what other people thought of them and more importantly, they didn’t seem interested in finding out. They weren’t loud…
-
Georgia Has My Toilet and My Sanity
We decided to “remodel” this week. I use that term loosely. Like emotionally supportive, not legally binding. Both Kris and I do this for a living. I have a strong background in construction and renovations. Kris does exterior maintenance. Together, we’ve recently expanded our company from outside stuff to everything under the sun. Reconstruction. Turn-key. Ground-up. The whole HGTV…
-
Feel Guilty for Sitting Down and Other Unhinged Thoughts
I don’t feel guilty for yelling. I don’t feel guilty for losing my patience. I feel guilty for sitting down. Somewhere out there, a mom is boarding a cruise ship with a margarita and zero emotional baggage. I’m apologizing to my kids because I worked on my book for twenty-seven minutes and didn’t fold laundry while…
-
The Women Who Survive
Grief does strange things. It sends you digging through memory, through stories, through the quiet corners of family conversations you never lingered in before. I was looking for Nanny. For pieces of her I hadn’t written down yet. For proof that she really was as strong as I remember. For comfort, if I’m honest. Somewhere…
-
The Water Was Always Enough (and Apparently, So Are Elves)
When I was little, we didn’t have a pool. Honestly, we barely had running water half the time. And even though water cost money we didn’t always have, my mom would let us “swim” in the bathtub on hot days. A whole ocean packed into a porcelain tub. We thought we were living large. It’s…
-
Bowling Alley Addition
Today I sat down to write this Tuesday post and… nothing came out. Not a joke, not a moment of chaos, not even a sarcastic thought about laundry. Just numb. Foggy. The kind of tired that doesn’t even feel dramatic…just heavy. So instead of forcing something funny, I reached into the vault. And wouldn’t you…
Crumbs and Chaos 