As a new parent, everyone braces you for how challenging the newborn phase will be. They make jokes about sleeping while you can because once the baby shows up, you’ll be up around the clock… 

A few weeks ago, we had this short but wonderful pocket of time right before our oldest son’s college graduation. For four days, we had all three of our big kids home. After  graduation, two… 

The children are afraid. Terrified, in fact. But you’d never know it by looking at them because they’re too scared to move a muscle, especially the ones around their eyes. What are they so afraid… 

A year ago, a tornado hop-scotched through our town. It was past midnight, and I was watching a movie at home with our teenagers. When our phones screamed a long, loud beep, we switched to… 

I used to be a fidgeter. I’d tap on things and bounce my leg so fast that Tom would sometimes reach over and put his hand on my knee as if to say, “Enough. That’s… 

I have a long relationship with waiting rooms. I’ve attended medical appointments for three kids, two dogs, one cat, and one husband. For nearly a decade, I also waited in rooms with my dad, which… 

A windsock shaped like a hot air balloon with a spiral tail is suspended above our backyard deck. When the wind blows, the balloon spins, and the spiral twirls below it, catching my eye when… 

In 1995, I got my first job after college from a “help wanted” ad posted in a newspaper’s classified ads. (Remember those?) The headline on the ad said they were looking for an “aspiring journalist”… 

Have you ever gotten good at the wrong thing? I think it might have happened to me. Yesterday, I read this article about the myth of multitasking — how what we once thought of as… 

By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3 Let me set the scene. We were at a restaurant with the whole family, including my mom, all three of our college kids, plus two roommates…