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FROCKTOBER Fashions Meet Literacy Support for Kids
✨WELCOME TO FROCKTOBER✨The month has arrived, my friends. For the fifth time, I am participating in #FROCKTOBER, an initiative that calls attention to a charity of choice by posting an outfit a day for the month of October. I’m always up for a good challenge, and this year, I’ve decided to blend my love of fashion with my love of books, writing, and reading..As an author, professor, and blogger, I love how creativity comes to us in many different ways, and I think combining FICTION & FASHION is a fun way to spend October! 😘 So, not only will I be sharing my fashion, but I’ll also be sharing and…
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The Ache That Happens As Your Kids Grow Up
In August, we dropped my oldest off at college. He is living on campus at a university that is almost two hours from our house. It’s not that far, but far enough to feel the distance. As we moved him into his room and helped him set up his dorm, even running to Target at the last minute for some things, we were in the heat of the moment. Our kid was going away for the first time, and my husband and I were coping with it okay (and I’m a college professor, so you would think this would be easy as I’ve been around it as my occupation). My…
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Second-Guessing Ourselves: A Mother’s Day Reflection
*** I always knew I wanted to have children, and I think at one point, I thought I’d have a lot of them. That was until my daughter almost killed me during delivery, and as well as from the aftereffects of said delivery. Honestly, if she had been born before my son, I would only have one kid. What happened during that delivery scared the living daylights out of me. I knew I’d never have another child after that. (Which actually, was quite convenient, as my husband was content with two kids: a boy and a girl.) And yet that incident left me second-guessing, which starts to become the mantra…
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The (Obnoxious) Kid on the Plane
*** It’s a prayer all of us have sent up at some point in our lives: Please, God, don’t let the small, rambunctious kid sit near me on the plane. Sometimes prayers get answered. Sometimes, they don’t. Don’t get me wrong, I love children, especially my own more than others, but when I’m packed in like a sardine on my way to a pleasant vacation—or even worse, on my way home from a pleasant vacation—the last thing I want is a fussy, crying, obnoxious kid sitting next to me on my journey from which there is no escape until we land. I already come to the journey on an airplane…
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Holding On and Letting Go of Your Children
The second a child comes into your life, you know at some point, you will have to let go. They are babies, and they need you as infants, but not too long after, they find their own two feet can take them places, and they start walking, exploring and discovering. Even as toddlers, they are beginning their journey away from you. As much as you want to hold on, the truth is, you are already beginning to let go. Think about it. Your toddler turns three or four, and he is ready for pre-school. You let him go. He has to find his way, make friends, create things on his…
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In Summer, The Song Sings Itself
In a little over a week, I’ll be back on campus teaching my fall college courses. Some people may dread the thought of work, but not me. I always look forward to the fall and going back to school, to using my brain, to being in the classroom, and to seeing young, eager minds ready to work. BUT I’VE HAD A WONDERFUL SUMMER. Yes. I have had one of the best summers of my life. I have enjoyed every tick-toc moment of it. Even as I’m writing this, I am sitting on my new back porch working from home, and taking a quick break from researching and writing a textbook…
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Trendy (Quirky) Things Kids Do
Someone please explain to me how it became a fad not to tie one’s shoes. I don’t know about you, but I hate the feeling of my own shoes being untied. My son walked out the door this morning, and I told him to tie his shoes. Because of the snow on the ground, I decided to drive both my daughter and him to school. He got out of the car, and guess what? The shoes were still untied. This is a trend among boys. I see it. I see it everywhere. And guess what? I don’t get it. On another peculiar morning, where the temperatures were hovering around 7…
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A Trick and A Treat
It was Halloween sometime in the 1970s. I was elementary school aged. All of the kids on my street where I grew up knew that it was one of the greatest nights of the year. We all went around together, shouting “trick or treat” and came home with oodles of candy. It was perfect. There was enough candy to keep me sick for weeks. I’ll never forget the one particular house where the husband was dressed as Dracula and the wife was dressed as some kind of vampire too. His cape flowed and his fangs were monstrous. He came out of the coffin and delivered us our candy in the…
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Conversations With My Daughter & Elf On The Shelf
Yesterday, my family and I went to Washington, D.C. We walked around Georgetown and did a little pre-Christmas shopping. It was a beautiful day to be taking in the sights and sounds of Georgetown, and the place was hopping! Before we left, we were discussing what was in Georgetown to see—and we were talking about the holidays as they are quickly approaching. “You know who’s going to be here in a couple of weeks, right?” my daughter said. I knew who she was talking about. She’s been obsessed with him since we first got him. “Elfis?” I responded. “Right!” she said excitedly. Elfis is our Elf On The Shelf. Every…
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A Conversation With My Daughter (I Just Love These)
(To set this scene, you have to understand the following: (1) My daughter’s room can tend to be sloppy; (2) She loves to analyze me; and (3) I am a hypocrite.) *** “Elle—your room! It’s a disaster! Come here and clean it immediately!” I’m shouting to her from the top of the stairs. She makes her way up, enters the room, and surveys the damage. “Yup. It’s a disaster, alright,” she says. “How can you stand it like this?” I ask, picking panties and Squinkies off the floor simultaneously. She looks at me and cocks her head. “Well, Mommy, you have a lot of room to talk. Nanny told me…
