outsidevoice

They say you never wake a sleeping baby. It’s one of the first things you learn as a new mom. That and how to survive on twenty minutes sleep. And it’s the quiet moments while they’re sleeping you come to cherish. That morning started out like any other – the quietest breakfast on the planet [...]

Today is Day One of Fifth Grade for Leah and Transitional Kindergarten for Benjamin. The first day of the last year of elementary school – and the first day of a “bridge year” for Benjamin. There’s a lot riding on this year. There is hard work and harder work, maturing and accepting, preparation and decisions [...]

Dear Benjamin, Yesterday you turned five. I think this was the first birthday where you really understood how special a birthday is and I’ve never seen you so excited. The moment the calendar read “July” it was all you could talk about. While the theme of the day may have changed 100 times (you went [...]

Usually by the time Leah heads to camp it is the end of the school year, recitals have just finished, projects are done and everyone is exhausted. All the getting up early, managing deadlines and homework, schlepping, hours of rehearsal and messy rooms uncovered have driven us both to short tempers and rolling eyes. By [...]

There is a lot of joy that comes with the title of “mom”. There are laughs and zerberts and tickles and smiles and “firsts” and unending love in two directions. There are lessons taught and learned, traditions old and new, pictures and crayons and hugs and kisses. Somewhere in there your center of the universe [...]

I was home with Benjamin and his phlegm today. I took the opportunity to catch up on folding and distributing laundry about the house… so up the stairs we went. First stop, Benjamin’s room. Then Leah’s. The picture above is what I walked into when I opened the door to Leah’s room. Felicia uses a [...]

Sunday we had the family over for lunch to celebrate Benjamin’s 4th birthday.  (4 Year Old post coming shortly, I promise.) Without going into too much detail, about halfway into the party my mother-in-law began to feel “odd” and she was escorted to our bedroom to go lay down.  After a barrage of questions, the [...]

The day before we dropped Leah off at camp we met some friends in Waco to swim and have some fun. Leah is roughly the same age as our friends’ kids and everyone enjoyed hanging out in the cool water in 100 degree central Texas heat. While I was watching Leah swim I noticed as [...]

Yesterday Benjamin and I were so excited to go to the mailbox. You see, we both knew it was the day we would receive our very first letter from Leah at sleepaway camp and I couldn’t wait to share with him what she had written and see his little face light up. The amount he [...]

In a past life also known as “consulting”, I was often subjected to tests. Personality tests, intelligence tests, behavioral tests and even tests regarding my values. Turns out I have some of each. I could almost guarantee the results of any test I had to take. Some were incredible “so what?!”, a few were “mildly [...]