MamaManagement

Last night I was on the floor of my daughter's room stretching while she read to us from the biography  Who are Venus and Serena Williams?.  (It's part of the "Who Was/Is" series, which we are pretty much addicted to.) We're a good third of the way into the book and she's reading to me about Venus and Serena's early teen years, right before they joined the WTA and went pro. I stopped her mid-chapter to emphasize what she'd just read...that the Williams' sisters would practice 6 hours a day, during that time, in addition to school work and regular life stuff. Isn't that amazing, I said to her. They clearly had talent, but to become the best, that's how hard they had to work. To win tournaments, to become great, to make it their job, they had to practice 6 hours a day. That's a lot of work, I said, marveling over the fact that they hit more than 100 serves everyday. Can you imagine how tired their arms must have gotten? I asked. ...

When things get crazy in your life and you just can't do it all, what are the first things you drop off your to-do list? I can tell you, without the least bit of hesitation, the first things to fall off mine: Exercise Meditation Healthy eating Downtime Hobbytime Sleep Which means that when I'm stressed out, the first things I stop doing are the things that help me manage stress. Brilliant, I know. Am I only one who does this? I have to believe I'm not. Nowadays, the month of May and first half of June are almost as crazy as the back half of November and the month of December. Of course, in all the wisdom of my pre-kid-self, I conveniently gave birth to my children in December and May. (Who knew?!?) So in addition to all the other craziness that we all have in those months, I also have kid birthdays. Which basically means I'm insane in May and December. It also means that I am stressed out, more likely to have anxiety attacks (a new-this-year added bo...

I just read this Instagram post by Glennon Doyle that shows a photo of a woman walking her dog from a golf cart. Glennon had named this woman the "VP of the #OOF Club" (that's "Out of Fucks to Give Club") for "carrying a bucket of coffee the size of Florida and finding a way to beat the dog walking system at its own game-- driving 1 mile per hour in front of me and not even considering pulling over or speeding up for me." Glennon wasn't mad; she goes on to say, "HERE'S TO WOMEN WHO REST WHEN WE'RE TIRED." (And we're tired.) This made me think of the notes I put in the kids lunch boxes today. For the last 8 months I have written a fun joke and a note to each of my kids and put them in their lunches pretty much every day. These notes are on colorful, cute-shaped sticky notes; they are written in multi-colored pens; they are usually done the night before. This morning I scribbled I <3 U on a sticky and tossed it in...

photo from pinchofyum.com It's been a while since I shared a recipe and this one was so good, I knew that it would be my next post. Sadly, I did not realize this until after we'd devoured the entire batch...so I have no pics! I'll likely make it again next week, so I'll come back and add some pics then. So, this quinoa salad is pretty simple; it's nice and light, making it perfect for spring/summer; it's healthy, so you can feel good about eating; and, of course, it's delicious! Let's get to the recipe! Spring Pea and Quinoa Salad with Honey-Lemon Vinaigrette * For the salad: 1 cup uncooked quinoa 3 cups frozen, organic peas 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese 6 slices turkey-bacon, cooked and chopped 1/2 cup raw almonds, pulsed in a food processor until crushed (or super finely chopped) For the dressing: 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/3 cup olive oil 2-3 tbsp raw honey (or to taste) 2-3 tbsp basil paste (or to taste) or 1/2 cup f...

Fear is a funny thing. It can invade our subconscious with ninja-like stealth and get us to do things we don't really want to do without our even realizing it. Fear is the creepy puppet master behind so many of our bad decisions. After lots of hard work, I am staring at the near-end of my work on one of my books. I am so excited to get it done and I want nothing more than to share this story with the world. Until fear enters the picture. The next step in the process is to have a few people beta read the book before I ready it for agent pitches and queries. While this is something you can pay someone to do, my plan is to ask people I know to read it and share their thoughts. It's not line by line edits, but bigger picture feedback, like: "It gets a little slow in the middle;" or "I didn't really like this character;" or "This chapter made no sense at all;" or "This totally sucks." As a writer, you hope for mostly glowing...

Confession: I don't know what to write. I'm here. I showed up. I'm ready to write. But...about what? I have lots of thoughts: jumbled thoughts, tangled thoughts, fast running thoughts, lazy river thoughts. But, fast or slow, I can't seem to catch any of them. They slip through my fingers like dandelion fuzz on the wind. I feel jittery and scatterbrained and, at the same time, heavy...like one of those over-loaded old pick-up trucks carting a house-full of belongings strapped on with bungee cord and riding low to the ground. It's a weird dichotomy of physical and mental sensations. Hence the jumbliness of it all. Confession: Things have been weird on the inside lately. My inner world is the manifestation of a tired, old, wooden roller coaster. Ups, downs, and some extra fear thrown in because you're never quite certain if the whole thing might not just come down right in the middle of the ride. And there's buzziness. I'm pretty sure that the buzzin...

My family has been on edge, people. February was yuck. And March wasn't any better for them. The recipe has looked something like this: 2 cups Winter Blues 1 cup Cabin Fever 1 cup General Life Stressors 1/2 cup Grey Skies 1/4 cup Freezing Temperatures 2 tbsps Stuffy Noses and Sore Throats 1/2 tsp Aches and Pains 1/3 cup Sick of Everything Mix all together for a big batch of blah, and then go back to bed. My husband's been massively stressed out at work. My daughter doesn't even want to go to school because she's so sick of the noise and chaos of stir-crazy kids. Everyone's so on edge that they're blowing up and breaking down over even the smallest annoyances. Even my always happy little man has a lower tolerance for frustration these days. This family is in massive need of a mental health break. And that's exactly what we're doing right now. It's Spring Break week at the kids' school and we have run away to North Carolina ...