Mental Health

How do you grieve, cry, get through personal challenges while ‘the show must go on’… being a mom? Mom is supposed to be the fearless emotional backbone of the family, the one our babies come to when they fall down and the one they want a hug from when their heart gets broken, but what happens when mom ‘breaks’? Mom will physically keep going even when she is emotionally falling apart. As a mother of three boys who has been through harder days than easier, childhood trauma and situational instability, the one thing I have learned through it all is just that… ‘the show must go.’ The important thing I have learned is emotionally sharing that journey with my children and being open....

I have been sitting on the idea of unplugging myself recently. Every time it crosses my mind to limit my social media time, my texting, etc. I always find some amazing excuse not to! I mean, how else would I find the best deals on Amazon Prime Day, or know that Target released a new OpalHouse collection?!But all these little subtle hints keep coming back to me pushing me to unplug. The priest in mass on Sunday got lots of laughs as he imitated a conversation he had with his friend on her phone, there were lots of awkward silences. As my husband nudged me, I knew. It was time. Time to clean up the apps on my phone,...

Yes, this is a post about bubbles, the often demanded, universally loved by toddlers, almost guaranteed to be spilled, bottle of soapy water with a wand. I have a newfound appreciation for bubbles and what they can bring to your life. Fun for Toddler Ah bubbles, this is often a go-to outside time activity for my toddler. If we’re outside for any length of time there are demands for “bubbles!” As a toddler with an ever-growing independent streak, he wants to “do it myself!” It is a way for him to have some control in his life and to exert his independence. There are demands to hold the bottle, he sometimes tries to eat the wand and, yes, drink the bubbles....

“My body failed me during my first pregnancy. Why again?” “I take care of myself … why me?” I struggled during my pregnancy with my twins who were born at 30.1 weeks, but before that I also struggled with the birth of my first-born son. I asked tons of questions, not just those two. My first son was born on time, head down and I did not have to be wheeled back for an emergency c-section like my twins (two years later). The only problem? My epidural did not work, and I felt everything. I felt the contractions, the sharp pain, the “ring of fire” and my episiotomy because my son would not come out. I felt everything. When my doctor...

I have four-year-old twins, one boy and one girl. My boy has been on the struggle bus hard lately. He has had a lot of feelings that little kids shouldn’t have to worry about. He’s been scared, anxious, worried, and even angry. He expresses worry about death and about whether or not mommy and daddy will come home. He’s had major separation anxiety, mostly with leaving me to go to school. We have tried narrowing down the trigger to this behavior, it could be the fact that I recently had surgery or that his dad was on an outage at work and was gone from home more than usual. He panics, he screams, kicks, hits, and you cannot get...