Wet Noses

The reaction to an article I shared recently has made me realize that perhaps sharing more of my struggle with mental health, anxiety and depression would be helpful for me and others. This is intended to be my story, but I welcome you to add yours to it. Today's post is about the things I have learned that help me. Please find the things that help you. For decades, anxiety, depression, impostor syndrome, self-doubt and low self-esteem have been issues of varying degrees for me. They have ranged from a little voice I try to ignore to the inability to get out of bed, eat or even feed my children. I've seen many counselors, tried medications... albeit briefly, and tried to just force myself "out of it." And while I am not an expert, I have come to learn that there are five things that I need in my life to help keep things in balance. Animals . I need animals in my life in a meaningful way. My cat, Bec (whom I chronicled in this blog early on), saved my life m

I have no idea where my son came from. I mean, clearly, I gave birth to him. I definitely remember that. But he seems like he is from another planet. In fact, I am convinced he made up his own language and he and his sister are the only ones who speak it. It is a combination of Pig Latin, Spanglish and rhyming. And he runs around the house all day long speaking in it. If you ask him a question he will answer you with a straight face in this crazy speak. "2.0, did you brush your teeth yet?' "Neeth wreath row woa." The child couldn't rhyme if he tried, but when he stops thinking and just opens his mouth, rhymes flow out freely. I don't get it. Maybe he is going to be the next Eminem or Macklemore. I have little to no patience for silliness. I know, I should never have had children. But nonetheless, I have two and can't stand nonsense. Yet this little human insists on teaching me, daily, the value of taking a break for a laugh or a smile or even just

They say that the secret to writing is to just write. They say that the key to completing something is to get started. They say that the hardest part of the journey is the first step. They sure talk alot. They must be related to my son. He is four now and he doesn't shut up. He talks himself to sleep at night. He talks himself out of trouble daily. He talks himself into trouble hourly. The most uttered phrase in our house is "Stop TALKING!" I would give my left arm for an hour of quiet when he is around. But, the reality is, talking is how he expresses himself. It gives us our only insights into what it is like to be a four-year-old boy at this moment in time. And it seems awesome. It is filled with dressing up as Cinderella, getting muscles from your superheros, climbing walls like spiderman, doing head stands in the middle of the mall, singing the wrong words to "Shake It Off" as loud as you can. It is filled with so many stops and starts, so

Yes, we are in the dressing ourselves phase. Every day the Gremlin has to pick out her own clothes and put them on herself. She is very in to layering and frequently has on multiple tops and bottoms. This morning we wore a onesie, a long sleeved button up shirt, a pair of pants, a pair of shorts and a skirt. Then we put a sweater jacket on top of that. Most nights for bed we have to wear PJs and a skirt or pair of shorts. Thankfully, it is getting cooler out, so the poor thing is not sweating to death. While this might not sound like a big deal, it is. I have a hard time letting go of things and allowing her to pick out her own mismatched clothing is very difficult. But it makes her happy, so... this is what we end up with. Aside from dressing ourselves, the Gremlin has also been perfecting her kissing form...on a goat. She fell in love with a 4-day-old goat at the farmers' market this weekend and bent over to give him a kiss on the lips, multiple times. I know, who&

I have been traveling for work a lot lately. I was gone Monday-Wednesday this week, but came back last night. So imagine someone's surprise when she woke up this morning to her mommy, whom she hadn't seen since Sunday night, singing Happy Birthday to her. Know what she did? She laughed, turned over and said "No no. Way, way." Then coyly turned her head and smiled up at me. I don't think she likes my singing. On that, she is not alone. Today is the big day. She is turning 2. Are we in for a year of tantrums and screaming? Maybe, but as long as there are also days like today, where she laughed and danced and gave me kisses, it is all worth it. Here are a few photos of the birthday girl and my sleeping prince. The first is the outfit we picked out this morning, because it looks like something daddy would wear (swear, that is what she said when she picked it out of the closet). The second is the outfit we HAD to change in to when it arrived via special delivery fr

We had our first weekend of cooler (by cooler I mean low in the 60s in the morning, high in the low 80s - this is Atlanta after all) this weekend. And it was perfect timing. My husband had a trail race on Sunday morning up in the mountains. So we packed up the car early on Sunday and headed up with the entire clan (minus her Majesty, the cat - she isn't much of a fan of the mountains, or the car, or life outside of our bedroom to be honest). We packed most everything the night before and that morning got everyone out of bed early (6:15ish) and put them into the car to go back to sleep on the ride up. It didn't quite work like that. 2.0 slept for maybe another 25 minutes, then was hungry. Thankfully I had pumped before we left the house in anticipation of this and handed him his bottle. He is getting pretty good at feeding himself, but you still have to help him reposition the nipple every now and then. Otherwise the milk just goes all over his chin and neck. That kept him bus