Dear Moms,
For the love of all that is right and good about motherhood, can we please call a truce? I am raising my white flag. Watch as I wave it wildly.
Can we please agree, as a collective group of mothers who love our children but also love our sanity, to abolish the guilt laden obligation to make treat bags?
Forever.
To put it simply, let’s bag the bags, ladies. Please. Continue reading
It’s clear I spent just a tad too much time in front of the TV over Christmas break. The days were full of family fun but the evenings were free for me to channel surf. So I did!
It’s safe to say I am no genius but I did spend a few days learning about marketing strategies in college. In fact, I chose to major in the subject. My dusty, 17-year-old diploma (complete with the fact that I’ve never really directly used my marketing degree in my career) seems to give me just the right amount of ‘right to complain’ about what I feel are ad campaigns that completely missed the mark.
How ’bout that for a run-on sentence?!
Dear Marketing Executives: Continue reading
After a whirlwind yet joyful Christmas, I find myself finally able to take a breath and look back over the last week. It went down something like this……
(Sing along, please.)
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true loves gave to me: Continue reading
I’m determined this will not be another year where I find myself just starting to get in the Christmas spirit on December 26th. In order to get a jump start, I’m focusing on some of the things (some tangible, some not) that I adore about this time of year. Continue reading
I was such a good mom.
We recently became zoo members. In watching our kids’ enjoyment on our last few visits, I wish we had become members years ago! It’s not uncommon for us to leave church on Sunday, grab a quick lunch and head to the zoo for an afternoon stroll. We’ve done this a handful of times in recent months and try to enjoy different parts of the zoo each visit.
It’s a rather perfect environment for our wild and crazy family because the kids can run relatively free and we don’t have to worry about them running away, being abducted or fret over potential mass casualties from their routine destruction. It’s educational, keeps their interest and sometimes keeps them occupied enough to allow me to have a conversation with my husband.
The zoo can be a magical place. Continue reading
I have a confession that will not come as a shock to some of you. I view the past with what some would call unhealthy sentimentality. Don’t fault me….I come by it honestly. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and in this instance the mighty tree is my father. As children, we drove him crazy. As in forehead veins bulging crazy. As an only child my father was less than prepared for the volume and high speed playing, battling, arguing that existed in a house with three offspring. Don’t misunderstand. He was/is an amazing dad. He’s loving, kind, and an incredible instructor with focus on what is worthwhile and noble.
But I remember several times in my childhood when I was certain his head was going to explode off his body from frustration over something one of us had done.
Flash forward thirty years and my father will see kids acting out in restaurant, turn to my mother and say, “I don’t EVER remember our kids acting like that. Ahh, those were great times. Our kids were so good….” My dear mother typically rolls her eyes and mutters something about his ability to rewrite history. If she’s really feeling spunky she’ll tell the barbecue story. Continue reading
Dear Lord,
Thank you for the unknown mom who loves the slow moving child who stalled the bus just enough to show up a few minutes late at our stop to allow my slow moving child to catch her ride to school. Barely.
Thank you for my slow moving girl and her confidence in wearing pumpkin orange polka dotted knee socks with pink shorts. And for her desire to talk to me, at length, about how much she loves these socks, which further slowed down the slow moving girl. Thank you for shutting my mouth and letting her wear the socks. Continue reading
I’ve been meaning to write for weeks. I have needed to write for weeks. Yet the weeks have been dragging on with no tangible documentation of our current events. The truth is that life has happened.
You know, the ‘life’ part of life that leaves you feeling like you’re in a time warp. The series of weeks where you lift up your head and realize a month has passed and you’ve just been plowing through your days trying to keep your head above water. The Groundhog Day season of life where you hear the alarm and can’t remember what day it is because you’ve executed the same pattern for days on end. Shower, get kids ready, pack lunches, get to the bus, work, work, work, make dinner, head to practice, feed everyone again, showers, stories, check backpacks, goodnight kisses, get waters, listen to the final fifteen pleas to use the bathroom yet again, wash face, brush teeth, crash into bed. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Continue reading
I am certain my angst with August seemed silly to many of you. After all, every year we send kiddos to school. And every year winter arrives and is eventually followed by spring. So, why on earth would a grown woman complain about an entire stupid month.
Well……
I’ve written and rewritten this post. I’ve trashed completed drafts in my attempt to share my thoughts. I just can’t seem to get it right.
You see, my intention is to share a bit about my lifelong friend. Known to me first as Krista Anne Lutterman.
It’s a gift to have a buddy, a kindred spirit, someone to share life with. It’s an entirely different thing altogether, a priceless treasure, to have someone you can share nearly every aspect of your life with for 35 years.
I had that.
Thank you, God.
But I, and SO many others, spent August of 2012 facing down the reality that our earthly relationship with someone we cherished was about to end. Continue reading