parenting

‘Nothing Gold Can Stay,’ and Thatā€™s OK

In the South, we have a tendency to cram words together to create a single gigantic one, a kind of linguistic Pangea, if you will. The one Iā€™ve been using a lot lately is ā€œusetacould,ā€ a condensed form of the phrases ā€œI used to be able toā€ and ā€œI once…

MS and Fertility: Conflicts of the Heart and Mind

ā€œRock bottom is the end of what wasnā€™t true enough. Begin again and build something Truer.” ā€” Glennon Doyle The first of our four pregnancy losses were our twin daughters in 2013, which happened nearly halfway through my pregnancy. Three years later, the first symptoms appeared that would eventually would…

This Is What Love Looks Like

Last night, as I was grumpily prowling through a pile of overpriced red and white striped hats looking for one that would fit my fifth grader, I asked myself, Why exactly am I doing this again? I already knew the answer. The next day was Read Across America Day,…

Focus on the Flowers, Not the Weeds

Ah, itā€™s a new year. And what would a new year be without a few resolutions and goals to kick it off? Rather than a set of instructions, a plan, or a few words of encouragement, however, Iā€™ll just tell you about a little something thatā€™s going on in…

The Graduate

The queue to get into Canterbury Cathedral in bright sunshine seems endless. The quandary of being Dracula strikes me ā€” I’ll either fry in the sun or fry in a church set up during the Roman occupation of Britain! Luckily my condition is MS, so we seek solace…

Teach Your Children Well

As an advocate for the multiple sclerosis community, people often ask me what itā€™s like being a mother while living with MS. My quick response is, “Joyous!” But I understand the questioner is looking for something more. They want to know how to…