The past several months, I’ve had my head down focused on freelance writing & editing work, tutoring, and substitute teaching. Like many school districts, ours has a significant shortage of subs, and I felt compelled to take some days so that teachers don’t have to cover other classes during their planning time. It’s a little…
The Arts
Literary Cypher reading 1/19/2022
I’m excited to be reading from my short story, “Under Construction,” on Wednesday, January 19 at 7:00 pm ET in The Literary Cypher with seven other amazing women writers. To join on Zoom, check the event page the day of the event for the Zoom link: https://bit.ly/LiteraryCypherXV. “Under Construction” appears in Gargoyle 74 and is adapted from…
Burrowing & Surfacing
In the DC area this spring, the electric buzz of cicadas seems nearly deafening each time someone opens the door. Within a few seconds, we acclimate to the sound, but each time we go outside, we shake our heads at the cacophony created by thousands of small wings and the fat bodies that sit underneath…
Written in Arlington poetry anthology
I was so pleased to have my poem “Eleven One” featured in the new Written in Arlington anthology and on the book’s website just before its November 2020 launch! But it was a true delight to be part of the book’s January 24, 2021 reading organized by 1455, a literary arts organization and writing workspace and retreat…
Saying goodbye to a soundtrack
Saturday nights have been my solo time since my husband and I separated a year and a half ago. While Sunday nights have often been family dinner at his place, and Friday nights have been about me just settling into my space, Saturday evenings have been about inhabiting that space and exercising my mind, usually…
View from day 47: pandemic papers
Just as some food allergies can cause delayed reactions that are hard to place, so are all the weirdnesses caused by sheltering in place wreaking havoc on my children’s emotions and their abilities to self-regulate. Take today, for example, when my 9-year-old smashed her iPad down onto the dining table at 10:13 a.m., shattering her…
How the Indigo Girls broke Facebook but soothed 60,000 hearts
Less than a week into mass social distancing in response to the novel coronavirus, the Indigo Girls spent 90 minutes the evening of March 19 singing and telling stories to viewers in a generous online concert that brought together many of the people who would no longer be able to see the duo in person…
Fall into Winter (again)
Although much has changed since this summer-fall recap post was originally written in December 2019, I’m backdating the post upon belated publication to reflect my reality at that time. —— When I look back on past Novembers when I did NaPoWriMo – National Poetry Writing Month – I love knowing that I found joy in…
Bright spots in spring
Before the long days of summer parenting melt my brain, I want to capture some of the good that happened this spring. I wrote in late April about what life looked like in the first two months of my separation from my husband. Daily journaling for myself has become very important, but time capsules captured…
EcoAction Author Event May 21
I’m pleased to be a featured reader at the first EcoAction Author Night on May 21 in Arlington, Virginia. EcoAction Arlington, the event organizer, was formerly known as Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment (ACE). The organization celebrated 40 years last fall! I’m honored to be reading with Tara Campbell, author of TreeVolution, from which she…
What this spring brings
After BlogHer Health, I did lots of thinking about purpose and passion, about time and transition, about mothering and more. The month of January stretched wide, like the mouth of an animal whose jaws seem to magically open to the horizon. I began using The Best Part of My Day Healing Journal and began understanding how…
Recap: Inspiring BlogHer18 Health conference!
BlogHer18 Health, the first health-focused conference produced by BlogHer and SheKnows Media, was a terrific two days full of inspiring speakers, education and connection. To say that I’m glad I went is a profound understatement! It was terrific to be in a space with a shared language of health and wellness being spoken everywhere! I loved it! More…
Busy spring!
The first two weeks of May have been packed. The month started with a Clean Air Awareness event I helped to organize. It was successful and I hope will lead to more awareness about clean air habits, especially people turning off their cars while parked at school. That drives me crazy! The event went well…
Join me at Listen to Your Mother DC!
I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be part of this year’s Listen to Your Mother DC cast! If you haven’t ever attended a LTYM performance, make this your year! It is, in fact, the final year of the program as it’s been done around the country with original stories in each city. It’s going to instead become a…
Behind the scenes with Jennifer Robins of Predominantly Paleo
It’s super exciting to watch a friend be as successful as Jennifer Robins of Predominantly Paleo blog and author of five cookbooks including the new Paleo Kids Cookbook that comes out on September 6. I met Jennifer when she came to a Holistic Moms meeting I organized with Stacy Toth of Paleo Parents as our…
Return to BlogU
BlogU is a small and intimate conference that is both super practical and a lot of fun. It’s local to the greater DC area, which is big for me since traveling is such an ordeal with my food and fatigue issues. And it’s economical, with the conference – including all sessions, keynotes and parties –…
What I’ve Been Up To!
It was February the last time I wrote, in the wake of a Femworking meeting after which two members challenged me to think about what success means to me. Things have been moving a lot since then! I was also getting some coaching and working with a therapist, both of which helped me to integrate…
What would “success” look like
Today I was challenged to define success. This was at the end of a networking meeting, and I was spinning my wheels about what I’m trying to achieve with Mindful Healthy Life vs. what seems realistically possible given the commitments I have to my health, to my family, and to my community. Well, that was…
How long can November possibly last?
For a short month, November has been really long. It feels like eons ago that I started this daily blogging thing, this getting up at 5 (or at least by 5:45) on school days to exercise and write. There have been two days off from school and now three this week and then boom, the…
On the eve of finishing Harry Potter
In just 30 pages, I will have finished the epic that is the Harry Potter series. My son and I started it in July, a week after his cousin had read him a chapter at a beach cottage and two days before my son ended up breaking his leg. We did a lot of reading…