Category: Family

  • Motherless, she persisted…

    Motherless, she persisted…

    When my mother died last March, I was caught off guard by the depth of my grief and the sense of profound loss that I felt. My mom and I had a really good relationship, but we weren’t close in the way some mothers and daughters are. She was sick for a long time so…

  • Strange New World: This Week’s Top Ten

    Strange New World: This Week’s Top Ten

    Whatever gets you through, right? These past four weeks have been a roller coaster of emotion — moments where I’ve felt like yeah, ok, I can do this for as long as it takes, and others when I dive deep into despair and wonder how I’m going to do this for even one more day,…

  • Montréal

    Montréal

  • Rainy Day Finds

    I’m using today’s miserable weather as an excuse to rummage through and discard the crap that’s been accumulating in our basement since we moved in 5 years ago (and way before that if I’m being honest, since we’ve hauled this stuff from basement to basement for more than 15 years). One bin has yielded an…

  • Amsterdam you’re good.

    Amsterdam you’re good.

    A few months ago a friend was telling me how much she loved Amsterdam. She’d just returned so the magic of it was fresh in her mind, and she made it come to life for me. This was right around the time we were thinking about our summer vacation and what to do with it…

  • Bruges (It’s Everyone’s Thing)

    Bruges (It’s Everyone’s Thing)

    Ah, chocolate and waffles and frites and beer. And beer, and beer, and frites and waffles. And buildings. Breathtakingly beautiful buildings, steeped in history and a bit of mystery. If you love these things as much as I do, you should probably head to Bruges pronto. Because you will love it. You will love it…

  • Weekend in Maine

    Weekend in Maine

    So, apparently, it’s a thing to go to Maine on Columbus Day weekend. Did we know this? No. We were there by chance to meet up with friends who live in New Jersey. Is Maine halfway between Massachusetts and New Jersey? No. Don’t ask too many questions, ok? You might think it would be hard…

  • Ahhh Spain, part dos: Jávea!

    Ahhh Spain, part dos: Jávea!

    We live in a small beach community where winters are tough but summers are magic. And,  this summer feels especially sweet in our little corner of the world after the winter we just had, which pummelled us with storm after storm after storm, wreaked havoc on our trees, flooded our basements, knocked out power more…

  • Ahhh Spain, part one: Madrid!

    Ahhh Spain, part one: Madrid!

    Ok, let’s face it. Some vacations are just better than others. Our latest adventure in Spain was rated 9.9 out of 10 by all four members of our family.  Will we ever get to the elusive 10? I don’t know, and I don’t really care. I’m not a perfectionist. The first part of our trip…

  • Everything, everything we hope we can be…

    Sometimes a simple little Internet search will unearth something totally unexpected and completely wonderful.  Motivated by the fact that it’s Women’s History Month and by all the stories I’ve been reading about strong women, I decided I wanted to write a piece about my maternal grandmother who, though not famous, was a pretty amazing and…