The first year as a stay at home mom was the hardest year of my life. And I’ve had some tough years. The most important and helpless person to come into my life relied on me for what felt like pretty much everything. Once Dad came home in the evening, that still didn’t stop. He […]
Mental Health
One Year From a Good Day
I’ve been anticipating this day recently, but not enough to actually investigate when it would be here. Thankfully for the multitude of apps that had my back, I woke up to the notifications that today is the one year anniversary of starting my blog! Prior to today, I was expecting to think something along of […]
Pregnant During a Pandemic
Pregnant! I admit that in the couple of weeks between finding out that I was pregnant and the first case of COVID-19 in my state, I would actually forget that I was pregnant. Not because we weren’t over the moon excited. Our first took three years to grace us with her presence, so finding out […]
She Needs a Hat
You’re at the store/restaurant/park/cousin’s wedding. Your child melts down over (insert any reason here). You look up and see the faces of what feels like a hundred people judging every parenting decision you’ve made up to this point. You hear someone say, “uh oh” and it solidifies your suspicion. The meltdown you can handle, it’s […]
No Year’s Resolution
New Year’s resolutions and I don’t mix. Maybe it’s the Show Me State still coursing through me, but I’m of the stubborn mindset that if something is important to you, you’ll just do it and quit yapping about how you’re going to do it in the future. I also get irritated when people make a […]
Purposely Walking on Thin Ice
Anyone else ever feel like they’ve been hit by a train after therapy? Or a big self-revelation? Like you need bed rest, IV fluids, and maybe some Jello? Today I got hit with some train-sized hard truths. I’ve done a ton of work around self-love and yet I’m still clinging to perfectionism. It has to […]
Is An Apartment “Enough”?
Our language is not very descriptive sometimes. You can know someone, as in you have heard their name before and could pick them out of a crowd. Or you can KNOW someone, as in you’ve held their hair while they’re sick and delivered a speech at their wedding that had even distant cousins in tears. […]
Gearing Up to Go “Back Home”: A Mental and Physical Checklist
My husband Tyler and I are getting ready to take our 17-month-old daughter to my hometown. We’ll see lots of family and go to some of my favorite places. This is my daughter’s third trip, my husband’s 10th-15th, and probably my billionth/25th-ish. Somehow, each time it seems to get harder to prepare my mind and […]
You Don’t Need a Reason to Have PPD/PPA
Mental illnesses are not dependent upon any outside life conditions or events. Somehow I let that lesson slip after the birth of my daughter, despite having dealt with depression and anxiety for most of my life. Knowing I was susceptible and thinking that I knew what to look out for still didn’t keep me from […]
The Meaning of a Bike Ride
Summer is here, well spring, but in Minnesota we just seem to say summer because really it’s either winter or it’s not in which case it’s summer. Anyway, it’s here and in typical form it’s a mad dash to pack in as much fun as possible while sitting back and soaking it all in. Dash, […]