Motherhood & Words

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joy

Every Labor Day at my mom’s cabin, we unhinge the ladder from the dock, pull the boats from the water, and say goodbye to the lake—the lake I love, the lake the girls love—and I feel that familiar swell of melancholy as I realize another year has gone by. In the last two weeks I’ve…

upcoming online class – and a podcast!

Now that the kids are in school and my schedule has opened up a bit, I’m turning my attention to writing and teaching. Registration is now open for my fall online Motherhood & Words class. Here are the details: Motherhood & Words Online Thursday, September 26 – Monday, December 9 (10 1/2 weeks) Whether you…

first day

Yesterday, I took Zoë to get her hair cut. She grimaced as the stylist combed through her tangled, matted red hair (she hates to brush it or have anyone else brush it). But then her hair was free of snarls, and I watched as chunks fell around her shoulders and slid to the floor. It was…

shifting gears

Today marked the beginning of the great emptying of the house. Stella went back to school and D went back to work, and on Wednesday Zoë will begin kindergarten. KINDERGARTEN! She’s a little worried, I think, about making new friends and learning a new system. A couple of times in the last week she’s mentioned…

in the clouds

My favorite day of travel is the day I return home. Even the excitement I feel heading out on a trip—to a writing conference, to a workshop—can’t be beat by the day I get to go home, to D, to my girls. When I arrived in New York on Wednesday, I was filled with melancholy—my…

first comes love

My brilliant friend Diane sent me an email a few weeks ago saying that I had to see her friend Nina Davenport’s new documentary, First Comes Love. I do everything Diane says because, as I said, she’s brilliant. So emails were sent, introductions were made, and a week later I was holding a copy of…

changes

For the last four weeks I have been in a state of constant rushing—rushing to work, rushing home, trying to squeeze editing and other work—publication prep, website updates, etc.—into those rare moments when I can sit down for a half hour at my computer. But there has been too much to do, and I’ve been…

retreat

There are a few minutes here, a half hour there, but really, not much time at all. During the bigger chunks, the ones in which I could write if I wanted to, work on my own stuff, I don’t. I slip on my sports bra, tank top, leggings sheared off at the knee, and strap…

and the winner is…

Thank you so much to Jill Christman for being the judge of the 6th Annual Motherhood & Words Haiku Contest. And thank you all so much for submitting your wonderful poems. It was so much fun to read them! So now I’ll turn it over to Jill: Thank you, Kate, for inviting me here to…

motherhood, motherhood, haiku

Happy late Mother’s Day, my friends. I meant to write a post on Sunday. I *thought* about posting. I even *planned* my post. But then I fell asleep on the couch. It was a much needed nap after an exciting (but very busy) previous week, which was full of readings in celebration of mothers’ stories.…

I had him at chicken cacciatore

It was June, 1998. D and I had just started dating, but it felt like it might turn into something serious. He was playing for the Minnesota Thunder professional soccer team at the time, and was traveling a lot, but between trips, I invited him over to my tiny studio apartment for dinner. At this…

spring flurry

I’ve been MIA here for the last couple of weeks, and I’m sorry about that. Stella, Zoë, and I were all sick—laid out!—a couple of weeks ago, and then I was traveling. Then last week I was trying to catch up from the sickness and travel. Two weekends ago I was in Denver to lead…