It's Wednesday night--almost 10 p.m. on Wednesday night--and I'm sitting on the couch next to a sleepy cat and a husband who's absorbed in a book. For the last few months, I've had posts for this blog scheduled out for weeks, and sometimes months, at a time. But over time, sick kids, travel, and the … Continue reading On Catching Up
Category: Life Thoughts
On a Wonderful Woman
Two months ago, my Grandma Izzy died. She was 97 years old, so it shouldn't necessarily have come as a surprise to me. But it did. It swept me right off my feet. We saw her the weekend prior, and she'd quizzed Jordan about all of the wild animals he'd gotten to see lately at … Continue reading On a Wonderful Woman
On Capacity for Care
Back when I worked in the animal shelter, I encountered a new concept: sometimes, when someone who frequently fostered animals in their home reached out to see if they could foster another, we'd talk about their "Capacity for Care." Meaning--did that person have the time, space and energy to properly care for an additional responsibility? … Continue reading On Capacity for Care
On Expecting the Worst
Life is not easy. As my dear friend put it this past weekend, it's like a coin with two sides: love and grief. The older I get, and the more I experience, the more I find this to be true. Nothing on this planet is permanent, including our loved ones. The longer we live, the … Continue reading On Expecting the Worst
On Planting 208 Baby Trees
Jordan and I excel at making our lives more difficult than they need to be. Maybe it's the product of a chaotic past decade that we don't know how to come down off of. Or a desire to distract ourselves from more difficult tasks. Whatever the reason, sometimes we make choices that I look back … Continue reading On Planting 208 Baby Trees
On Family Culture
Jordan and I are ten years into our relationship, and in those ten years, we've lived in four different states and six different towns. Each place we've lived has had a unique culture, one that slowly revealed itself to us over the passing days and interactions. There was Burnsville, Minnesota, with its teeming highways and … Continue reading On Family Culture
On Cranking Out Words
Over the last two months, I've been cranking on the sequel to Little Birds. Of course, as a parent to three small children and full time communications director, cranking looks a little bit different these days. Lately, it means choosing between knitting and writing each evening after we've gotten the kids into bed, or waking … Continue reading On Cranking Out Words
On Letting Yourself Go
This post was written in 2021, after our second child was born, and never published, but I figured it deserved to see the light of day. I'm aging. My skin is beginning to sag and wrinkle. The first lines of silver gleam against the dark brown of my hair. Of course, I've been aging my … Continue reading On Letting Yourself Go
On Slowly Building Skill and Perseverance Through Knitting
When I first learned how to knit, just finishing an item was a huge accomplishment, never mind what the finished product looked like, what techniques I'd used, or how complex it had been to start with. At the time, finishing was the vote of confidence I needed to show myself that I had follow through. … Continue reading On Slowly Building Skill and Perseverance Through Knitting
On Creativity in Times of Turmoil
Note from future-Sarah: This post was written before our move from Georgia to New Jersey, in 2022. Since then we've moved again (though hopefully for the last time), and again grappled with the roots we severed and the places we'll miss. I decided to finally publish it because it still rings true, and I thought … Continue reading On Creativity in Times of Turmoil