Oftentimes, my students teach me life lessons that they don’t even realize. To give a little background, I am a high school English and Theater teacher. I teach mostly senior level English, but I am also lucky to teach a Speech and Drama elective. I love this elective because it offers a chance for the…
Category: Real Talk
When the Unthinkable Happens
The death of a child is something that nobody should ever have to face in their lifetime. Unfortunately, it happens a lot. I would like to talk about what we, as helpless bystanders, can do when someone we love is faced with such an unimaginable loss. Several weeks ago my dear friend Casey’s daughter Karson…
Accepting Help from Others
If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Cupcakes I have been fiercely independent from a young age. I liked things how I liked them, I was going to do it my way, and didn’t need help doing it. I am still like this as an adult, although experience and maturity tells me things aren’t always…
Daylight Saving Time Strikes Again
Fall is upon us and amid all the brown, yellow, rusty orange and pumpkin spice everything looms another seasonal tradition: Daylight Saving Time. Yep, you read that correctly, Daylight Saving Time, that time of year when it ends and we have to move the clocks (again) and deal with the aftermath. You either love it…
Small Town Living… and First Grade Mean Girls
In my post last month, “When Longing Becomes Reality,” I wrote about our family’s move from the Phoenix area to a small town along California’s Central Coast. Our little slice of Americana is rural and cute. It is so small that it is actually not even a town, but rather a “census designated area.”…
How to Continue to Conversation about Mental Health (Part 2)
You felt like something wasn’t right with your child, family member or friend. You noticed the warning signs. You took action and started the conversation about their mental health and showed them you cared. You came up with a plan and then no one followed through on it. Did you know you are among the…
Busy Mom Friends List
The Best Kinds of Friends I’ve seen and shared the meme, which reads “A true friend is the one you can go months without talking to and when you reconnect nothing has changed.” Living in different areas of New Jersey and making friends with people from all over the state throughout my life, I’ve found…
Postpartum Support
Chocolate Makes Everyone Feel Better Birth demonstrates how incredibly strong women are. Postpartum reveals how extremely vulnerable women are. I did not expect the postpartum period to be as difficult as it was for me. I expected sleepless nights, but the emotional roller coaster of my brain transforming into a mother shocked my system. In…
The Baby I Didn’t Know I Needed
Isaac is my third born. He was a game changer. Terrifying and incredibly profound to my life since day one of conception. You see, life has a funny way of giving you everything you could have ever dreamed of in the least ideal of ways. From the end of my life as I knew it…
My Two Cents: One Mom’s Reaction to Sexual Assault
Recently I turned on the news and saw the headlines swirling again about yet another white privileged man who doesn’t know how to keep his hands to himself. It got me wondering what the hell is wrong with our society? Why is it OK for men not to take no as an answer? Why do…