Proudly serving unpolished working motherhood, with bipolar depression & hilarity on the side
The signs are all a lie, according to my husband. “Shit for sale!” he announces every spring, gesturing darkly to the hand-lettered signs. “Not enough crap of your own? Come buy ours!” When we drive by he adopts the persona of a soldier skirting hostile territory – eyes fixed straight ahead, not a break in […]
I was not a Hallmark movie kind of new mom. No obsessive nursery decorating, no mother-daughter dresses, no series of portraits declaring “I’m (this many) months old today!” You have to remember, I missed my own infant losing her umbilical cord due to my time in the special hospital. (If you’re new here, by “special […]
My family and I got kicked out of church when I was a kid. Actually, we kicked ourselves out. There I am in my lacy white dress, circa Christmas eve 1988, obediently sitting in the massive sanctuary beside my dad. My mom lingers outside the doors, watching my two year old brother zoom around the […]
He bounded to the altar like a ball of positive energy in the land of Jesus. “Welcome!” he exclaimed, and then proceeded to pour out a beautiful PowerPoint laced with ambition and enthusiasm for our children’s program as the lights shone on his wrinkle-free face. Having begrudgingly left my seat at the back of the […]
When you go public about something that’s not usually public, people open up to you in a a different way. After I published the blogs in Depression: The Mini-Series about the gritty details of my depression, my swing into mania and recovery, a small wave of people reached out to me. I’d been in a […]
Oh, right. Them. That was my not-so-thoughtful reaction, when someone pointed out that we need to make an effort to include men in the group. Sure, they’re included. I mean, who wouldn’t want to sign up for our four-week intimate discussion of an insightful Oprah-and-the-expert book on trauma? I just never thought, until that moment, […]
Driving to the doctor’s office the other day, I saw it – our old home away from home. The toy park. Our once beloved, now forgotten spot that my daughter and I visited at least once a week for years, whiling away hours pushing plastic lawn mowers, ducking in and out of playhouses and going […]
Babies have the best propaganda machine in the world. Look at this: Who could resist this stuff? Who could resist THIS? Meet Willow! She is the darling baby of my wonderful friends. Also, she’s a star recruit on the baby propaganda squad. Every time I see this kid, she’s either sleeping angelically or making feather-soft […]
The day was dazzling and I tried to rise halfway to meet it. Children’s laughter floated up into the air over the sparkling pool water as I drifted by on my daughter’s unicorn float. And right there, in the middle of Summer at the Pool: The Movie, the horrible little thought invaded like a demon […]
Our men were not allowed to be alone. They needed to be bodily escorted by at least three of us in order to interact with anyone outside the tribe. We did not touch people outside the tribe and we did not make eye contact with them. Simple rules. We all understood the rules. The problem […]