Beyond Just Mom

Our church is launching a simple theme this fall: 
 
These words from a recent message keep echoing through my mind:

The past is not ours to change. 
The future is not ours to see.
There is only one call that God extends.
It is here.
And it is now.
–Rev. J. Douglas Paterson

Makes me wonder, regardless of our faith tradition:
Are we [...]

Everywhere I go, people are trying to find balance. 
Whether it’s work/life balance, time/money balance, food/fitness balance, you name it, balance is the answer.  If we only had balance, everything would be Okay. 
So, do you know anyone who has found it yet? Someone who has actually achieved balance and sustained it?
After years of striving for that [...]

I might be having an identity crisis. 
It hit me in the midst of an amazing Vienna Teng concert at our local hot spot The Ark, for so many different reasons. 
Vienna’s performance moved me.  She’s so talented, so sharp, so lyrical and poignant–you MUST check out her music.  She sings of intimate personal issues as well as major [...]

A post-it to add to my fridge, asked by a wise mentor mom a couple of years ago:

How much fun am I
to live with?

It’s a good antidote to the hen-pecking. 
That’s all.  How much fun are you today?
photo credit: demi-brooke

Julie Stills Miles at Pragmatic Compendium posted this video that made me laugh and almost cry all at the same time:

I laughed at the ridiculousness of it and how far we have come since those days.  But in some sense, I cried at the irony, because there have been times when I’ve felt almost that [...]

When I started this site a few months so very long ago, I wrote a few foundational posts on the key words of my byline:  reflections on family, faith and the flux of life.  At that time no one was around to read them, so I thought I’d start the new year fresh with a [...]

Oh, what a difference a split second makes! 
Yesterday, I was cruising through my Christmas errands:  picking up this, dropping off that, baking up this, shipping off that, stopping by here, shopping by there, and transporting people from place to place.  A light snow fell, promising a white morning blanket and lifting my Christmas spirits.  I was [...]

My second grader bursts through the door after getting off the bus, wrestling to break free of her backpack, coat, boots, gloves, etc. before she runs inside.  I’m sure she desperately needs to use the bathroom, so I step aside to make way.  Instead, she rushes straight to the phone, frantically scrolling through the caller [...]

You might not be caught up in the economy issues (yet!), but I just wanted to share a few insightful articles on the view from our neck of the woods:
Cindy La Ferle on bailouts and jumpstarts
Mitch Albom’s fantasy “If I had the floor at the auto rescue talks”
Mitt Romney discussing why the Big Three needs [...]

Morning Edition is running a series about new research on multitasking. 
NPR’s Jon Hamilton sums it up like this:
“Multitasking causes a kind of brownout in the brain. Meyer says all the lights go dim because there just isn’t enough power to go around.”
Yikes!
I don’t like hearing this.  Even if I kind of knew it was true. 
I like multitasking.  I [...]