On September 11, 2001, I was awake much earlier than I wanted to be . . . struggling with insomnia and watching mindless tv to try to get back to sleep.  I don’t remember what I was watching, but I do remember the program was interrupted to report on the first plane striking the tower.  It seemed like an awful accident, and I watched in horror, wondering how this could have happened.  When the second plane crashed, I woke up Mark, and we watched together in a state of shock.  . . .

On Thursdays, I post from the vault. This is from August 2008 There are so many days where, as a mom, I feel completely unequipped. I am often looking around and feeling like I am the ONLY mom fumbling this much and in so much chaos. I am the mom who forgets water bottles at playgroup, who forgets sunscreen at the beach, who forgets to pack lunch for preschool, who forgets the helmet at the skate park. I try very hard to overcompensate for this by being "intentionally organized". I . . .

My kids went back to school this week, and not a moment too soon. This summer . . . ugh. In theory I love summer. In practice it kind of sucks. Working from home with four kids around is not for the faint of heart. I was exhausted and constantly distracted and irritated and the kids were bored. I think even they were ready to go back to school. I realized while taking these photos that this is the last year I will ever have all my kids at one school. Jafta and Karis will never again attend the . . .

Here is a little tip for how I remember to have ongoing conversations about sex in our house:  I do it every Labor Day.  I'm firmly of the belief that the "sex talk" should be a continued developmental conversation that evolves and educates throughout childhood, but it's easy to let years go by without making the time to broach a topic that, at least in our house, kids would rather avoid. So Labor. Day is a reminder for me to do an annual check-in with my kids around their . . .