You train for it
It is always amazing when someone has peace in a truly trying situation. I think sports provides a good analogy for how that can happen. You train for it. I’m not a big s... »
Marie Alvero
Good little house
Recently we bought a 1960s tiny house as an investment property. I honestly wonder if we are good investors because this little house project hasn’t gone as we had hoped.... »
The full circle of love
If I could sit down with twenty-three-year-old me, newly married, careening into motherhood, oh, there’s so much I would tell that girl! Young me had a somewhat unrealist... »
A hope and a future
The memory of leaving our home in Mexico City still feels as real today as it did 18 years ago. I remember feeling so much loss! Big dreams we had worked so hard for and... »
When you aren’t ready
Each year, December 25th comes around whether we’re ready or not. We often talk about how there’s so much we still need to get done, how we’re short on time and money, et... »
A tale of two gifts
Each year, we host a Christmas party at my house. All the guests bring something of approximately equal value, and we play a game to determine what gift we all end up wit... »
The three siblings
There’s a lot of pain in this world. The topic of human suffering winds its way through every period of history as we collectively try to understand its causes. Specifica... »
Joy in this mess
Yesterday I surrounded my table with friends, and we served a dinner my husband took hours to create. It was a wonderful evening. Also yesterday, headlines read of two se... »
The evolution of a mother
(Written in early 2008) When my husband Sean and I had only one child, I thought I had a handle on parenting. I needed to adapt and bend and give up some of my independen... »
The teenager
There are hundreds of books and blogs on raising children. You can find umpteen ways to sleep train your baby, wear your baby, feed your toddler, teach kids to read, and... »
Motivating rewards
“We have to pay for school lunches this year,” my daughter informed me after the first day of school. I already knew this. During the previous school year, the school dis... »