What to do when we get Sucker Punched by Social Media.

What to do when we get Sucker Punched by Social Media.

I got sucker punched by social media this morning.

I guess, more specifically, I was sucker punched by something—someone—from my past. But without social media, it might not have hit me so hard and taken my breath away like it did.

And I’m kind of wishing right now that this particular piece of my past had just stayed in my frickin’ past.

Usually, it’s those memory reminders that pop up in Facebook and make me a little nostalgic. Like when that memory of my son popped up of when he was only two years old and running circles around the kitchen with a bucket on his head. That video memory made me laugh and cry at the same time.

I’m a Slacker Mom & It’s Time to Level-Up my Parenting Skills.

I’m a Slacker Mom & It’s Time to Level-Up my Parenting Skills.

I am wholly unprepared to be a parent.

And yes, I'm pretty sure I might be thinking about adopting that as my mothering motto.

It’s not an uncommon feeling for a lot of parents, I know.

It’s something that you might expect to hear from someone about to have their first baby, maybe. But not someone who's already a parent, right?!

Let alone the somewhat seasoned parent of a 13-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy.

I just Quit my Dream Job & Now my Ego is Pissed.

I just Quit my Dream Job & Now my Ego is Pissed.

Yesterday, I quit my dream job.

At least, what I thought was going to be my dream job.

It couldn’t have been more perfect for me—on paper, anyway. It was the title of my dreams, doing work that I love, for an organization that I admire and had been a huge fan of for years.

I knew a lot of people who were applying for the position, and they all would have been amazing in the role. But in the end, I was offered the position, and I was giddy.

It felt like the planets aligned in my career sector (is that a thing?) because it happened so quickly and effortlessly. Like it was meant to be. Destiny.

Soul Project: Saving my Self with Soul Work.

Soul Project: Saving my Self with Soul Work.

Have you ever thought about jumping off the corporate ladder and taking a leap of faith?

Do you dream about it all day, every day? Or never, because you love your job and all it provides? Or something in between, like only on Mondays or the bad days?

If you do dream about it, what will it take for you to finally make that leap?

Well, I finally found out what it took for me:

To My Ex-Boyfriends: 7 Reasons You Would Have Hated Being Married To Me.

To My Ex-Boyfriends: 7 Reasons You Would Have Hated Being Married To Me.

So I’m 99.9% sure that I’m going to end up alone in this world and it’s going to be my own frickin’ fault.

Do you ever get that feeling?

That you are just too hard to love? Too hard to live with? Too hard to be around?

I just spent a few hours with a couple of women I really love. And who I know, for sure, really love me. I know this without a doubt.

And at the same time, in the space of a few hours, it was mentioned – more than a few times – that I have issues. (Ummm…hello?! Have we MET?! We are all well aware, sisters…)

How to Take Care of Ourselves when our Golden Handcuffs start Pinching.

How to Take Care of Ourselves when our Golden Handcuffs start Pinching.

Golden handcuffs.

That’s what my husband and I used to call it when he worked for one of the largest software companies in the world. He had an employer who paid him a generous-enough salary that afforded us the luxury of me staying home with our babies for as long as I wanted.

They also provided amazing benefits—we never paid a single copay for 10 years. Not for doctors’ office visits, specialists, or hospital coverage for the birth of both of our babies. I don’t even think we paid copays for prescriptions. That seems completely unbelievable now, so I feel like I’m making that up. But I know it’s true because I remember the pediatrician’s office and pharmacists commenting on it every time we went.

We knew we were blessed. And we also felt trapped.

Soul Project: Save. My. Self.

Soul Project: Save. My. Self.

Limbo sucks.

I’ve been reading a lot of quotes lately about embracing that place. You know the one. That place between no longer and not yet. Where you’re no longer the person you used to be, but not yet the person you are becoming.

Well, if you haven’t experienced it for yourself, let me tell you something: it sucks.

Taking Back Valentine's Day to Love Our Selves.

Taking Back Valentine's Day to Love Our Selves.

I'm feeling compelled to take back Valentine's Day.

Take it back from the greeting card manufacturers, the florists, and even from Facebook, where all I see today are updated profile pictures of couples with hearts bursting all over them.

It's not that I am skeptical or pessimistic or cranky about love. Quite the contrary, actually.

5 Things I Promise You—for When You Make the Big Mistakes.

5 Things I Promise You—for When You Make the Big Mistakes.

I am suddenly overwhelmed and feeling woefully ill-equipped to be your mother, sweet girl.

I feel now much like I felt when you were a newborn and we were leaving the hospital: When I looked around at all the nurses who were actually letting me walk out of the hospital with you, and wondered who was going to teach me how to do this.

What I Found when I Got F*cking Brave.

What I Found when I Got F*cking Brave.

I have always felt stuck between worlds.

Always.

I’m the black sheep of my family, who was labeled “the quiet one,” and begged to go to boarding school.

The one who never belonged to any of the cliques in high school, but had friends in all of them.

How Brené Brown brought my Green-Eyed Monster Out.

How Brené Brown brought my Green-Eyed Monster Out.

Brené Brown is everything we want her to be.

Recently, I had the pleasure of sharing my day together with 1,400 other people at a local spiritual church, listening to Brené Brown talk about her newest book, Rising Strong, in a day-long workshop called, “Rising Strong as a Spiritual Practice.”

Ladybugs & Cups of Tea taught me how to find Comfort in the Chaos.

Ladybugs & Cups of Tea taught me how to find Comfort in the Chaos.

Finding comfort in small moments has been crucial to my sanity these past few months.

This fall, my family has experienced a perfect storm of overscheduling.

I have always been proud that our family has never been one of those families who has every minute of every day scheduled. We’ve always tried to keep our kids to only one or two activities at a time.

I Spent Nine Years in a Career that Bored Me.

I Spent Nine Years in a Career that Bored Me.

Nine years.

Nine. Years.

I spent nine years in a career that bored me.

It hurts to even say that.

I had no idea that I could be so good at something and not actually love doing it.

Caught Between the Badass Women I Love and the Bully on the Playground.

Caught Between the Badass Women I Love and the Bully on the Playground.

It’s been a few weeks now since the election and here is where I’m still struggling.

I am caught between the badass women I love and the big, bad bully on playground.

There are three women—perhaps more—whom I have admired, respected and looked up to as feminist role models in my life for a long, long time.

Women who, it turns out, voted for Trump. 

Bypassing with Nachos.

Bypassing with Nachos.

So I’ve only recently heard about this concept called Spiritual Bypassing.

I know, I know. I’m a late bloomer.

I heard it once a month or two ago. And then I heard it again. And again.

Suddenly I was hearing entire podcasts and webinars about it, so I took it as a proverbial cuff upside the head from the Universe and decided I better pay attention.