Normal. What does normal even mean? I have often wondered this in my life, and I admit to spending time worrying that I don’t fit in with the “normal” people and trying to figure out how I can become more normal. But, I’ve come to realize that what is normal for one person may not…
I love listening to some of the NPR shows like This American Life. The topics and stories they come up with fascinate me, especially since they are usually about the lives of ordinary people like you and me. StoryCorps is another project that NPR has done, which gives people the opportunity to record an interview…
Every single day of my life, for the past 10.5 years, I have second-guessed myself, worried that I’m not good enough and wondered how anyone could have entrusted me with a baby or a toddler or a tween or two or three of them. Every day as I hear things I thought I would never…
Dr. Phil once said something along the lines of “Don’t worry what people are thinking about you, because they probably aren’t thinking about you.” I’ve thought about this a lot since I first heard it, to remind myself when I do something particularly embarrassing or when my hair isn’t working quite like I’d like it to,…
So, I was sitting in Time Out For Women on Friday night listening to Amanda Dickson talk about friendship. For a moment, she was talking about her late mother and how much she missed her and then she said something about meeting people and being able to tell that they were members of The Club. The…
I swear my phone came installed with some sort of magic kid alert, because it doesn’t matter who I call or who calls me or how important the phone conversation is, the kids magically appear in front of me as soon as the phone is activated. I do my best to ignore the tattling/running commentary/begging…
I think one of the most painful times of my entire life (and I mean painful as in painful/awkward, not painful/tragic, FYI) was the space between coming home from my mission and meeting my future husband. Ugh. I had sort of dated this one guy before I left, but I already had my papers in and stuff…
What girl doesn’t love curling up with a good Jane Austen? Okay, so I know a few who haven’t discovered just how wonderful that can be, but I know a good portion of you will totally understand my love for Austen and my need to re-read all her novels every few years. That said, I can’t…
I’m guessing I don’t have to do much to introduce this book to you, as it has already received quite a bit of attention in the news, on Facebook, on blogs and message boards and everywhere else. I must say that last week I spent more time than I should have defending this book to…
My oldest daughter is my parents’ very first grandchild. I’ll never forget how excited they were when I found out I was expecting, and after she was born. They even changed their answering machine message to “You have reached Grandma and Grandpa P.” instead of using their first names. They were thrilled. I have to…
I am not much of a history buff. I have decided that this is due to the incredibly boring manner in which the history books I studied in school were written. I might also lay blame on less-than-stellar history teachers, too. Suffice it to say, I usually don’t enjoy reading history books, but every once…
You may have noticed a theme in my last couple posts. I’m rundown, overwhelmed and I realize that, while my priorities are right in my head, they aren’t in reality. So the book I’m reviewing today really came at a perfect time in my own personal crisis. In fact, as I was reading along yesterday…