On my birthday, I exhaled into a new word: Freedom.  For nearly three weeks of my new age of 43, I've been letting this word show me what it means. So far, Freedom means giving away the shoes that hurt my feet.  I have long heard women older than me say things like, "I am […]

For a brief season of their childhood, my boys gave gymnastics a try. In retrospect, I think they were more interested in learning fancy trampoline tricks, but nonetheless, for a few months I spent many an afternoon in the tumbling gym. My mind wandered while my boys were flipping and flying with the one class […]

My first husband died eleven years ago, on the morning of December 23, 2010. In the days to follow, I released this personal account of his final hours, the story I must write. Please be advised, these paragraphs are graphic, detailed, personal, and mine. Read with caution, respect, and care. These words hold my very […]

Knock, Knock. Who's there? Something that should matter to you. Something that should matter to you - who? Yes. And also Where and When and How and For What Purpose and For What Cause. Everything matters.   There's so much to care about. Everybody is giving me more things to care about.  The headlines are […]

Well done, Simone. Well done.   We don’t own you, Simone. Nobody does. We have showed you off like you are our prize pony, but you are nobody's work horse. You knew in your heart that this doesn't define you. That you are enough.   I cannot get over this display of greatness, dear girl […]

Middle School is officially in the rearview mirror.  Everybody finished, everybody survived, and I don't just mean the eighth graders. Many years ago, I was invited to speak at the continuation ceremony of a class of eighth graders, a special crew who had gotten their start in my kindergarten classroom.  They're all well into adulting […]

I took my children to school today. It felt gloriously normal, like muscles that have ached to be stretched. It's hard to be isolated in eighth and ninth grade. As a friend of mine said, "Once I started ninth grade, my social life was so busy that I pretty much never really came back home." […]

A Christmas Special: Give my book for Christmas!   For $20, I'll send to you a *personalized, signed copy* of the book of your choice, including gift wrap and shipping.   Straight to your door, complete with my love and doodles.   Available Books: ~ Just You Wait ~ You Can Do This   Available […]

I read recently about an interview with author Nora Roberts, where someone asked her how to balance writing and kids. (Anything of this specific genre grabs my attention faster than a barista calling out the cup with my name on it.) She said the key to juggling is to know that some of the balls […]

I am forty-one years old.  That happened this summer. I am solid in my emotional convictions about birthdays (love them) but also odd numbers (hate them), but forty-one seems to be here for a while longer, and we are becoming friends. Since I am the age that I am, I feel old enough to finally […]

Three things have happened, and they are sorting themselves into the same space of my mind, as if they belong there together. First, I sat outside during a summer evening rain shower.  The tasks of the day were finished, we were in the after-dinner space of each doing our own thing, and I was sitting […]

This is the final week of distance learning, a household term that nobody knew three months ago. This week, we go to the school to pick up what was left behind in their lockers in the Great Middle School Rapture of March 2020. One of the parents commented on the school thread: I'm so sorry […]

So many new things are happening in these crazy times, you guys. Like the fact that I seem to have become a homeschooling mom who bakes pies and walks several miles a day. It's like that game on Facebook where you're supposed to post a status that makes people think you've been abducted.  Like if […]

Parents of Preschoolers and Toddlers, this season is the real deal, isn't it?  You are in the t-r-e-n-c-h-e-s. When my guys were preschoolers, I had to have them out the door by 9:00am, or the house would surely crumble around us.  I was sure of it, and my theory was fairly proven. And now, this […]

In the writing world, your "Platform" is the broad term for "the people who listen to you." The size of your platform matters quite a lot to publishers. After all, if they're going to invest in your writing and give you a contract, they want to know who's waiting in line to buy this book. […]

"Tricia, how can I stop living in fear? I'm worried that something will happen to the person I love. How can I keep this fear from paralyzing me?" This question, it's so pure, honest, true, and real. How can I keep from being afraid all the time? Here's what I said to this person who […]

"I would do it all again. I wouldn’t have spared myself any of the pain that I have gone through by loving hard, and by loving what death can touch. I wouldn’t change that. I think sometimes we try to protect ourselves from the inevitable, and really, that's where grace is. Grace is in the […]

"Mom, I wish you had some kind of record of the things I said when I was little." The incredulous look on my face may have been apparent to him, and I didn't mind.  I wasn't hiding it. "Tyler, are you kidding me right now?" "Yeah, I just wish there was some way to know […]

Yep. It snowed. Quite a bit, actually. Summer break starts on Friday, the community pools open on Monday, and we are in several inches of snow in Colorado.  It's all Facebook can talk about.  We are a whole city irritated. The tree limbs all look so defeated today.  All bent over, hanging low, burdened. No, […]

Two days ago, I barreled through my to-do list. It probably looks like yours, errands and groceries and dinner and Amazon one-clicks and checking reading logs and getting the mail. Add in a sprinkling of "transcribe the interview" and "edit the chapter" and "brainstorm the outline" before "pick up boys from everywhere." As I bustled […]