Today, I said thank you to the Starbucks barista who made my Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew, even though she is complicit in my addiction. I won't press charges as long as she keeps making that goodness that unabashedly defines autumn for my soul. Today, I said thank you to my dad, who gave me a […]
Maybe you've seen this story that's circulating on social media: "Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones. But no. Mead said that the first sign […]
Football is in his blood, and I held him off as long as I could. It was only a matter of time, and that time has come. This is the year, and last night kicked it off: Tucker has started playing Tackle Football. I seriously delayed all of this for as long as I could, protecting […]
Has it ever happened to you that you’ve realized you’ve been doing all the wrong things? Maybe not all the wrong things, but just too many of not-the-best things? You guys, I've been running ragged. There's a pulse of living a writer's life, and I suppose it's not that different from living any other kind […]
Well, just in case I didn’t love grocery shopping with every ounce of my heart, I’m now back to pushing two loafers around in the cart. The Target experience is a little too much of a jaunt for Tucker and his recovering foot, so I load the two of them into a cart made for […]
1 Fall from a Swingset 4 Breaks 8 Hospital Visits 1 Surgery 5 Pins 1 Screw 16 stitches 3 Days in the Hospital 1 Wheelchair 2 Knee Scooters 3 Casts 87 Days 87 Nights Finally: Cast Off Day. I wasn't prepared for how emotional this moment would be for me. He stood on two feet, […]
I never intended to be a single mom, but then I guess not many of us in this tribe aimed for this title. I’m rounding out four and a half years of flying solo, and I feel like I’m finally finding my groove. Or maybe it’s just a good week, or I’m basking in the […]
We broke the scooter. And I use that pronoun very, very loosely. If you’ve seen Tucker scooting around town, school, church, or our general community, then I’m sure you are not surprised. I was not surprised. Except to say that it’s a little alarming to see broken metal. That’s the speed and velocity with which […]
Let me tell you one thing I know for sure, a nugget of foundational truth that will never change: Nothing slows down the morning drop-off routine like forgetting the knee scooter at home in the garage. Sweet Tuck is so good at the morning routine. He gets up so early, and he packs his lunch […]
Today marked a great big finish line for us: The First Day of School. #BrokenFootSummer is “over,” and we have entered the broad and beautiful landscapes of third and fourth grade (new striped cast and scooter notwithstanding). Even though I am not a mom who grieves such things, I surprised myself by not doing my […]
And so, the pins are out of Tucker’s foot. We can officially say he is tougher than nails. Because, oh my goodness, that was no small undertaking. They had told us it wouldn’t hurt to take out the pins. Bones don’t have nerve endings, so when you break a bone, it’s not the actual bone […]
I don’t remember why I was kneeling and crying. Last week was kind of a doozy for such things. I can’t recall what exactly pushed me to the brink, and I don’t know how I got to my knees or why I didn’t get up, except that it must have seemed fitting to stay where […]
Here’s a little exercise to bring you right into the action with me on this one. Reach down to the inside of your left ankle. Feel that knobby bone? Now, reach just below that, not quite to the arch of your foot, but to the soft tissue part in between. Feel that? I rammed Tucker’s […]
I can really only think of one way in which it would be feasible to lose a wheelchair. Perhaps if I were a brand new candy striper volunteering at a hospital, and perhaps if I were tasked with moving all of the wheelchairs on site to, oh say, a giant wheelchair closet or parking lot, […]
I have seen an unusual potency of kindness and unkindness in the last couple of weeks. I suppose they are both around me always in ways I normally breeze past, but I’ve seen them in some up close and personal ways, these fresh bouquets of kindness and dried leaves of the opposite. The unkindness happened […]
Two weeks post surgery, we went back to Children's Hospital for our follow-up appointment. They cut through all the layers of cotton that had been holding him together, which looked an awful lot like shearing a sheep. (Or what I’ve seen of sheep shearing, which was probably on Sesame Street.) I thought I was prepared […]
To read this article in its entirety with PJ Parenting, click here. I was drinking iced coffees at Starbucks with my agent, whom I love deeply and implicitly for more reasons than just the fact that he launched my career. He asked me, “Trish, how will you redeem this #BrokenFootSummer? How does a writer make […]
The subject of this blog post asked that I take it down based on the personal backlash he has received. I have chosen to edit the post accordingly, since he had no idea what he was stepping into. What a weird and terrible day for my heart. Many of you watched it unfold on the interwebs. Throngs […]
Children's Hospital is like EPCOT. Our male nurse named Coop who whispered when Tuck was sleeping, listened to his pain, and was every bit a man's man. The 'ball circus' in the lobby of Children's Hospital. We could watch for hours. Scents and flavors to change the smells and tastes of medicines. Nurses who tell […]
