I am not a child of divorce, but my son is. This is a lifestyle that has become new and unfamiliar to me. Heartbreaking at times. It has its moments. I am learning as the years go by. It’s not the life I would have wished for my child to experience, but it is the life I chose for him, for us. We persevere. We share the holidays.
For my son, this is all he knows. His parents were divorced when he was an infant. So he has always had two families; it’s what he knows and it’s all he remembers. So as the temperature drops and I begin hear the jingle of the music, I anticipate the reminder of what his...
We never made an "official" decision that we would keep the holidays simple, it just sort of happened. Like most couples, early in our marriage our income and our time were both very limited. Even a few years later when we became parents, I was in graduate school, scraping together enough money to pay the bills and spending most of my "extra" time with my nose buried in books or running statistics. Going all out for holidays just wasn't financially an option and we didn't have a lot of time or energy to build complex traditions. Perhaps a lot of the reason we have a simple holiday season is just a reflection of our own experiences growing up. When I think back over the many...
I LOVE CHRISTMAS! The holiday hustle and bustle, the general good will of people everywhere, and the twinkle of holiday lights gets me giddy from about Halloween on. I (being an overly organized planner) begin thinking about holiday plans around Labor Day and love to make the holiday season last as long as possible! I was raised to fully believe in the "magic" of Christmas. Even before my children were born, my husband and I fully celebrated the holiday season. Now that I'm a mother, I want my children to know the magic of the holiday season just as I did when I was younger. My mother loves Christmas, my grandmother loved Christmas, and now I hope to raise...
“Be thankful for what you’ve got” We all know the phrase, we’ve all said it before in some form to ourselves, to others, to our kids. Thing is, we don’t get it. We don’t really get it until something punches us in the gut. Sometimes it’s something that happens to us, sometimes something that almost happens, other times it’s what happened to family or close friends and every once in a while you get a glimpse of it’s true meaning through the words of a stranger: “We’re all terminal” she said to me.
I met her a few weeks ago. She had won an award and was visiting Baton Rouge from across the country to receive it and be celebrated....
He can’t wait to get home. To pull on his boots. No time to change out of the already stained and spotted school uniform. I get to slip his polo off occasionally. If I can even beat him to the door. Out he runs in his undershirt. “Mommy, let’s go!” he yells as he shoves his styrofoam sword down the back of his shirt. He runs to the backyard. The stray kitten that showed up under our porch this summer, Batman, tags along.
There’s nothing else on his mind. No room to be an adult now. Only room to be a kid. Absolutely zero awareness (and that’s what’s wonderful) that the car is still loaded down with the morning’s breakfast, his...
Around Baton Rouge
Mardi Gras From the Perspective of a Krewe Dancer
Mardi Gras From the Perspective of a Krewe Dancer
It's that time of year we have been working towards all year long. Preparing three to...
