Watching my daughter, Serrah, practice the running man in the middle of the Kitchen, K-mart parking lot, and everywhere we went; had Maggie, her older sister, rolling her eyes constantly. I, on the other hand was trying, unsuccessfully to learn it with her. We were a constant threesome now, Serrah my roomie... Continue Reading →
Madeline Louise
"Mama, there's puppies next door! Daddy, come see!" Maggie and Serrah, heralded their news in stereo. Great. OK, let's go have a look." We were in Bismarck celebrating my younger sister, Carmen, graduating high school, with my family. The neighbor handed puppies over the fence to Maggie, Serrah, Lyle, and I, "They're eight weeks, yellow... Continue Reading →
Sisters in Cahoots
I stopped dead in my tracks, eyes wide, as I took in the sight of my four-year-old daughter, hair hacked off just below her jaw line with stray remnants of her beautiful long golden brown locks hanging as strings that she had missed with the scissors. “Oh, Maggie, your hair!” I wanted to cry. “Sorry,... Continue Reading →
“Oh, NO, no, no, no! Maggie Ann! What the heck?!” To my complete horror, I watched my eldest daughter, as in super slow motion, walk toward our home from a couple of houses down. She was holding her clothes in one arm. She was stark naked?! Why? What on earth? I closed my eyes, opening... Continue Reading →
Defeated
The pharmacist rang up the medicine for treating the thrush in my infant daughter's mouth. I stood nervously holding her. I hated this part, but I swallowed my pride and said, "I need to put it on a charge." He looked at me awkwardly, "We don't use charge accounts here. You have to pay with... Continue Reading →
Keep the Change? NO THANK YOU!
I stared at the contents of a toddler's diaper in disbelief. He had passed a quarter. What on Earth? Throughout the two years that I had an in-home daycare, I both figuratively and literally saw some "weird shit.” The kids that I cared for ranged in age from six months old to four years old.... Continue Reading →
Our child was missing, and the world has never been a bigger place than it was that Sunday morning as we stood in our doorway looking out into it with terror in our hearts. "GO to the neighbors'. Maybe they saw something, or she's there. You know how friendly she is." It was true. At... Continue Reading →
Snapshot
There truly are moments in time that stand still and stay preserved as snapshots in our minds. I sat in the recliner nursing my infant twins simultaneously in "football hold", just as I had learned it from the books I had read in preparation for mothering these babies. A playpen full of clean clothes sat... Continue Reading →
Love My Messy Life 