Adventures in Mexico City
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I just got back from an epic vacation with my family to Mexico City.
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5 Tips for Getting (and Keeping!) Kids Excited About Art Museums
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Read my article over at Parent Co about how my husband and I engage our boys at the art museum.
Read MoreMemoir: Disneyland
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Uncle Philip knew the on-ramp to the freeway was my favorite. He gave me a wink as he revved the Bug as we waited at the signal to enter, then gunned it as the light turned green. He took the big C curved loop fast. I held on to the door handle tight, then imagined what might happen if the door opened, so I quickly locked it and took hold of the dash grab too. As we entered the freeway and straightened out he laughed and said “Well, Missy, that was our first ride of the day, cause I’m taking you to Disneyland!”
Read MoreSearching for Advent Hope
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Consider what it means to have faith like a child during Advent. Read my essay at Busted Halo
Read MoreMaking Up For the Past
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“It’s my year to put the star on top of the tree!” my oldest squeals as we remove the silver star from its box from the basement. Each year, he and his brother take turns being hoisted up into the air by my husband, stretching to place it a top the tree.
Read MoreAdvent: Making My Home Cozy
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I pull out the boxes of Christmas decorations from the basement the day after Thanksgiving. My stomach is still full from the night before. It will be another day before we set up the Christmas decorations yet already I feel stuffed, in my clothes, in my home, in my life. The tree will take up much needed real estate in my already tiny front room. I groan thinking of a full month of feeling claustrophic in my house.
Read MoreMemoir: Presence
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On my grandparent’s shaggy avocado green carpet, I set up the Winnie the Pooh Weeble house they gave me for Christmas. Chubby Christopher Robin and Tigger go for a ride on the teeter totter. Pooh slides down the mini slide, rolling around when he gets to the bottom. “Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down!” I sing as I push them on the tiny swings, after I have given them a nice picnic lunch of honey, of course. I tuck Pooh into his little bed and sing him a good night song, “Jesus is coming, coming for me, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye.” The song is about the rapture, when Jesus will come for all those who believe in Him. It will happen quickly and without notice, I am to always be ready.
Read MoreHamilton Tickets Hard to Get? Go to Trinity Church Instead!
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My 6 and 7-year-old sons are obsessed with the hip-hop historical musical about Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton. We know all the lyrics inside and out. We take turns taking the lead on the Hamilton or Aaron Burr lyrics and our goal in life is to rap as fast as Daveed Diggs’ Lafayette. So when we planned a family vacation to NYC we knew there was one stop we couldn’t miss. No, at $500 a ticket, I just couldn’t see taking my family of four to see Hamilton, dropping over 2K on one night. We took the boys to Trinity Church near Wall Street to see the graves of many of the historical figures portrayed in the musical.
Read MoreTo My Youngest on his Sixth Birthday
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I see in you, the description of your daddy as a young boy, your Abuelita shared with me years ago, a curious little boy peeking behind the wall at her working in the kitchen. A little stinker of a boy who loved to tease and have fun but fiercely loyal and loving to those he selected as his inner circle.
Read MoreColoring Robots
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"I want motherhood to stay in these moments, not the moments where I am yelling like George Costanza"
Read this story over at Tribe Magazine
Read MoreFamily Film Festival
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As a parent, I am determined to give my sons, a proper film education. My husband and I have been scheduling our own Family Film Festival on Friday nights. We sometimes give in and show the latest kid film but mostly we introduce them to films and genres that we love from the classics.
Read MoreDepeche Mode: Becoming Part of the Mass
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My whole body is goosebumps as I hear the songs I listened to secretly on my Walkman, late at night as my parents would fight outside my room. These songs made me feel like I wasn’t the only person who thought things weren’t right in this world.
Read More4 Steps to Eating More Fruits and Vegetables
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Friends always ask me how I am able to buy the bulk size produce for a family of four without it going bad before we finish it. This is how I do it.
Read MoreLost in Books
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My 5-year-old son and I are sitting side by side on the couch reading. I with Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood, a book I should have read long ago and he another A-Z Mystery. I have a bag of chips on my left and every few pages he raises his hand out, without speaking for another chip. My 7-year-old is elsewhere in the house, probably in the smallest space between two pieces of furniture, curled up with his own book.
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To My Oldest on his 7th Birthday
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My precious boy with the name of a gladiator …or a dictator…not sure which. Your father told me your name on our 3rd date. I had the feeling it was a deal breaker for whether or not we’d move forward. I loved the rich history of the name of two of your great-great grandfathers before you.
Read MoreFavorite Part of the Day
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I started when my boys were quite young.
My sons, 16 months apart, needed me at every 5-minute interval…or both at the same time.
I started to see the days meld into one another, an endless sea of diapers and yoga pants. I needed something, even just one thing to set them apart. Each night before sleep, I’d write that one thing down in my journal. That one thing I could hold on to for that day.
Read MoreFruit Tastes Like Love
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No music. No singing. These were not women who would pat my red head as I passed them by or give me a little squeeze. They didn’t pop a piece of ripe cantaloupe in their mouth as they chopped. They simply cut, chopped, diced, sorted into dixie bowls. This was the morning snack for the Vacation Bible School kids, including me. Fruit I normally would not have a home. Fresh fruit that was not from a tree in our yard was a treat, a luxury. I looked forward to 10am when I’d be passed one of these bowls along with a little plastic fork. Was it duty? Was it a job that needed to be done so they signed up to do it? Was it an act of service to God? Not sure which but with each bite, I felt loved.
Read MoreThe Smiths: A Recharge of Lost Emotions
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Singer song writer, Ryan Adams says "Whenever I’m stuck when I’m writing, I could just put a Smiths record on, and it’s kind of like if my songwriting was an iPhone, it recharges it in like, five minutes.” I understand. The Smiths do the same for me in whatever mood I am feeling.
Read MoreFor the Love of Rosemary
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Now married for well over a decade, with our own home, I take walks with our boys, blissfully plucking rosemary from front yard walkways. The scent reminds me of falling in love, dreaming of this life we would build together. I hand a bit over for my sons to smell. I wonder what memories the scent will conjure up for them.
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