This week the jingle of bells, the tacky twinkle of electricity-wasting flashing lights dangling off storefronts, the blow up snow men and stupid faux reindeer on neighbors' front porches has been enough to launch me into crying jags that could overflow the levees of the Mississippi. If one...

Standing in the garage of my post-divorce fixer-upper (which has just been deemed too laden with mold to live in) the irony is thick.  I was just starting to rebuild my life when the place I fled to, became the place I had to flee. 

The people who...

Child/Children's Full Name:

Aidan Hope-Sunshine & Quinn Calm Lake (twins)

Preferred form of Address:

Sunshine and Calm (While our surname is legally Smith, we have adopted Hope-Sunshine and Paz Lake as love-names because we believe this more accurately describes our sons' dispositions.)

Age as of Fall 2011...

I have known women who mother their children from afar: by check, or Western Union, or bills tucked into letters. They mother by telephone or cards sent through a mail service so unreliable that by the time the news arrives it is already old. They mother by way of presents...

The other day I had a slam down/drag out battle with Bob. Not my husband, my stroller.

My husband bought me Bob for my 40th birthday (a couple of years ago if you must know). Sure, I could have asked for a mink, a Mercedes or a...

I don't ski. I dislike exercise. I don't like carrying anything except the bare minimum: twin toddlers, a flowery diaper bag, a Chai latte. My husband Stephen's idea of exercise is getting off the couch to change the channel (when the battery in the remote needs changing). Therefore, you might...

If your family is anything less-than-Brady-Bunch perfect then you too are glad it's January. The holidays are over. You can sink into a depression over your credit card excesses, double up on therapy sessions (further increasing your debt) and scrape your ego off the stained carpet, which you plan to...