I drove upstate to visit my best friend from college this past weekend because she just had her first baby. I couldn’t help but ponder the milestones we’ve shared: graduations, weddings, fur-babies, and now…a real baby! Our friendship has been nothing but a gift to […]
‘Frazzled Florida Friend’ Asked: Friends come and go and we all know that, but, how do I know when it’s time for me to let a friend go? What are my signs that this may be a toxic friendship that I need to let go […]
Friendship is a true gift and a unique relationship, unlike any other I’ve experienced. We don’t talk about friendships breaking up as much as we talk about our romantic relationships; maybe it’s because the unique relationship between girlfriends is too hard to voice. The person […]
In this life, the terrain is continually changing; we will climb mountains, skip through lush fields of wildflowers, traverse into deep valleys, and try to navigate our way through dry desert sand. Each with its own beauty and hardship. As difficult as these paths can […]
How many of us have sheepishly walked into a social event as the “new girl,” our hearts beating out of our chest as we cling to our phones for some semblance of comfort and security? One of my good friends and I had a conversation […]
I personally get so caught up in all that I have to do that sometimes I miss out on opportunities to grow. At times it’s because I completely blow past them in my effort to complete my to-do list and other times I am honestly just too tired […]
It’s a great time to mend fences. Not the ones in the back 40 of the ranch where very few of us currently live; I’m talking about the fences that are in need of repair between us. The damaged or broken relationships we all experience. […]
It is cliché, but we are all busy. In our pursuits, passions, dreams, relationships, and all the craziness that comes with life, we are busier than we were a few years ago. But in the midst of the crazy, we crave our girlfriends. We all […]
I have watched as so many women compromise on what they will accept from a man, especially the man considered to be her “rest of my life” partner. This concession doesn’t happen quickly; it comes slowly. Often without even realizing that you are giving up […]
From where do you derive your self-worth? Is it in the busyness of your job, where you clock up to 60 hours a week? Maybe it’s in your doting husband and your three smart, well-mannered children. Or, on the other side of the spectrum, maybe […]
You want to own your own business, become the boss with a goal of finding success and independence from another’s day-to-day expectations. From Shark Tank to house flipping, from launching your Etsy product line to joining a multi-level marketing company, there seem to be a […]
We all know someone carrying a burden. A friend on Facebook who recently got divorced, a friend in a bad relationship, a coworker with a wayward child, a mom friend who lost her husband. We don’t have to look too far to find someone in […]
Motherhood is complicated, and there are parts of the journey that we are often reticent to share. One of the most agonizing may not be the experience of all moms, but in today’s culture it is of the large majority. This world is busy making […]
If someone had told me that I was going to be a stepmom at 21 years old, aka a bonus mom, I would have laughed in their face. Not because I hated kids or because I was rude, but simply because that wasn’t a part […]
As I sat down with my second cup of coffee to follow my morning ritual, I scanned my emails when an article caught my attention: Study Reveals Loneliness at Epidemic Levels in America. The results of the study conducted by health insurer Cigna stated that […]
I’m a long-time flounderer. In fact, floundering has marked almost every area of my life at some point or another. You know why? Because I’m also a dweller. Yep, I dwell on my mistakes. I dwell on my failures. I dwell on my imperfections and […]
You wake up, take an overindulgent stretch, rub the sleepy from your eyes, wiggle your toes. Flip on the coffee and take a luxurious look around. It’s time for work! When you work from home, there is a lengthy list of wonderful attributes and it […]
Several years ago, the school where my husband and I taught asked us to give the Baccalaureate speeches at the graduation festivities. This was extra special since it was the first graduating class in the school’s history, and it’s a privilege we still talk about […]
Oh my goodness, it’s with tremendous humility that I write about adoption. To me, there is no greater honor than to have been chosen to adopt each of my babies. If you had asked me 10 years ago if I would ever be giving insight […]
As I approached my 10 year wedding anniversary, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the lessons I’d learned through a decade of wifing, as I like to call it. There are hundreds of things I’ve learned about me, him, and certainly about […]
Parenting teenagers can be very challenging and stressful on all levels of the matter. I have been in the teenage phase for the past four years, and though it’s not always tough, there have been times where it has left me feeling exhausted, depleted, and […]
Successfully raising our own children often leads to the joy of being a part of our grandchildren’s lives. While my children were growing up (whether we were living in Tennessee or Florida), it was very important for our family to be near the grandparents. We wanted […]
