Author - The Durango Herald

After injury, kids are the best medicine

Three weeks ago, I got a concussion after losing my footing at the ice rink and falling on my head. I know. Highly cautious middle-aged mothers are not the typical profile for co...

DATE: Feb 24, 2016 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Be playful, be silly, while there’s still time

Rose and I are walking Lucy, one of Rose’s canine clients, in the snowy woods behind our house. Rose is bouncing along and inventing icicle jokes. “What do you call an icicle in t...

DATE: Jan 27, 2016 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Sweet traditions invigorate this cold, dark season

Rose is balanced on a chair, placing candles in our family’s menorah, while I am hitting the household “hot spots” (couch clutter, table crumbs from breakfast, bathroom sink) before our Hanu...

DATE: Dec 23, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

To savor kids’ many seasons, live in the now

Every morning, I sit at the kitchen table with an alarming level of gratitude for coffee, while gazing out at the two crab apple trees we planted when Col was just a wobbly ride-along. ...

DATE: Nov 25, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Everyday offers an opportunity to live our values

It’s Sunday morning and Col and Rose are circled around a pile of Legos. They could stay here all day, or at least until their fingers have begun the evolutionary adaptation of sprouting the...

DATE: Oct 21, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

From the murk of conflict to the light of harmony

We’re in the late afternoon vortex, everyone milling around the house like they’re auditioning for the role of most irritable, lethargic family member. The kids are bickering for...

DATE: Sep 23, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

The business of growing up is complicated

I feel a little blasphemous admitting to you that I am feeling just fine about transitioning out of the perma-freedom days of summer into a little more structure. Maybe it’s beca...

DATE: Aug 26, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

10-year-old chef brings his own recipe to kitchen

How to cook with a 10-year-old: First, crack a beer. Next, put on Pandora. Accept that he refuses to wear an apron. Take five deep breaths. Explain to Rose, age 8, that no, when ...

DATE: Jul 22, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Slower summer lifestyle rich, rewarding

“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.” – Eleanor Roosevelt In sum...

DATE: Jun 24, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

Finding everything we need on trip to desert

Every crevice of the car is packed. The kids are human puzzle pieces wedged between carefully stacked ramparts of coolers, water jugs, sleeping bags. Four handmade bows bisect the vehicle le...

DATE: Apr 4, 2015 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

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