Health + Wellness

When my husband married me, he didn’t know he was signing up for a wife who throws fatigue-induced tantrums because our nearly-one-year-old son still doesn’t sleep through the night! He didn't know his wife would be the pallbearer at my grandfather’s funeral. He didn’t know he’d have to love me through piles of laundry and dishes and coupons clipped with good intentions but no follow-through.

I went to Columbine High School. Remember that name? It was the site of one of deadliest school shootings in American history. Two students killed 13 classmates, then committed suicide in the library. Most people remember where they were when the...

To stay connected and to avoid this stand off, it's important to be open about our feelings and our needs. There is a better way to handle it than saying, "I have a headache" or "I'm just not in the mood" or thinking, "Let's get this over with." We need to be brave enough to tell our partners what we need.

And there is one thing you should never say to a mom with a child on a feeding tube. "Oh, this is just a phase. Your child will grow out of it and will be eating all kinds of food before you know it."

A few months ago, I had a moment alone in the car with my 13-year-old. Bright, artistic, and quirky, she marches to the beat of her own drum. Many mornings she comes up fully dressed and I’m surprised at...

So often I enter a new year with high hopes that it will be the “best ever.” I’ll leave the drama behind, cut out negativity, good things will manifest and all my worries will fade away. I imagine I’ll spontaneously...

Navigating through the teen and young adult years is stressful and confusing. Imagine if you also had to wonder where you would sleep that night and whether you would eat that day? Tragically, homelessness is the situation for many Americans,...

My goal this year is to stop striving to be like "that other mom" and just be me. That is what my kids want. That is what my husband wants. They want more of the mom I was designed to be. The quirky, unorganized, passionate, fun-loving mom that was given to them. I want to be free of trying to be someone that I am not. 

I remember when I was pregnant for the first time, everyone would say, "Being a mom is so hard, but so worth it." Do you know what that kind of advice does for a mother-to-be? I'll be bold here and say it does nothing. The word "hard" is thrown around like confetti when it comes to parenting. It isn't incorrect, because being a parent IS hard, but the term "hard" has become so overused, it's practically meaningless.

In the end people remember less about things that you think are weird about yourself, or what you wore, or how much you weigh. Instead they remember how you made them feel.