Author – The Durango Herald

Being a mother – in this moment and the next

It’s 5 p.m. There are two extra kids at our house, a sinkful of dishes and piles of discarded clothes festering in sparkly pink clumps. The kitchen table is layered with paper flotsam. The f...

DATE: Mar 14, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Life is equal parts precious, out of our control

I am drinking coffee, reading the paper and fielding interruptions from the kids in a parody of my own routine morning ordinariness when my phone rings. It is my friend Stephanie, whom I’ve ...

DATE: Jan 31, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Too much time lingering over past misses present

Recently, I bought a package of balloons for a science experiment, and the very presence of these balloons, bouncing around the house, has reduced the kids into noun-limited toddlers (waking...

DATE: Jan 17, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

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It’s 10:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, two hours after our children are usually nestled into bunk beds. We’re with friends, their living room turned dance floor packed with the bendy...

DATE: Jan 3, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Gift of gratitude better than any material present

We’ve been entering the holidays, which I’m happy to say has been our typical spirited mash-up, all of which could provide material for the Sinatra holiday video remix of “My Way.” Which is ...

DATE: Dec 20, 2014 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Life’s challenges can present opportunities

It’s 5 p.m. on a weekday, rapidly approaching the convergence of three things: sundown, the need to invent dinner from the usual suspects and the collective family tank of energy hitting low...

DATE: Dec 6, 2014 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Hope is for kids to wake up curious every day

Col is practicing his BB gun skills. We bring the gun on hikes, promising shooting time after just a little more walking; this works in exactly the same way a bag of bakery treats works for ...

DATE: Nov 15, 2014 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Willingness, boundaries are pillars of balance

I wish I were more casual about tomatoes, more like, “Oh, tomatoes? Yeah, sometimes they all ripen, sometimes not, no biggie.” And then I’d skip off to do something fun and frivolous, someth...

DATE: Oct 18, 2014 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Sometimes, you have to Trust in the Universe

There is a very nervous (foster) kitten loose and hiding in our 800-square-foot house. And a caged rat cracking sunflower seeds, but rejecting the corn and “mystery pellets,” whi...

DATE: Oct 4, 2014 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Parenting like being life coach to very small people

We’re returning from an afternoon at the river. Col is struggling to carry out our deflated, unwieldy inner tube, unfurling itself from his arms like an escaping octopus. Col exhales the sig...

DATE: Sep 20, 2014 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Letting the quiet of nature into busy, modern lives

We arrive with our lowland shorts into a different world. This is our fifth trip here during mushroom season, and the land is like a historical record of how we’ve grown and chan...

DATE: Sep 6, 2014 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Unfathomable how much can happen in summer

A switch has been flipped in the garden, everything responding to the late-summer force that urges plants to grow higher, fuller, faster. Eating from our yard has become less whimsical novel...

DATE: Aug 16, 2014 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood