Earlier this year, I wrote an apologetic blog post about my lack of interest in politics, current events, and celebrity gossip – a.k.a. all the topics one resorts to when engaging in small talk with strangers. As 2022 nears its end, I thought it would...
Summer is my favorite time of year. Bare feet, barely-there clothes, lazy mornings. While most moms prepare for summer by finding the perfect camp for their kids, I get ready to bunker in for a ten-week session of Camp Mami. Collaborative breakfasts, long sessions of...
I wake up on the day I turn forty without a plan. No scheduled activities. No pre-ordered birthday cake. No candles to blow out. Quite intentionally, today is a blank slate. Depending on what kind of person you are, this may or may not sound...
Recently, Carlos and I had to make a tough decision regarding our kids’ schooling. As usually happens when we have to decide something big, I started to lose my marbles. We submitted ourselves to the same process we always do when making an important decision: made...
One of my biggest weaknesses is my inability to process current events in a healthy way. I know what you’re thinking – this is a pretty terrible weakness to have in 2022. Nonetheless, my profound dislike of politics and the media runs deep. Whenever anyone...
I first started keeping a diary when I was 10. Anytime anything exciting happened, I poured my heart onto its unicorn-traced pages. About a year later, a friend stole my diary. Then she proceeded to tell everyone my big secret: I’d kissed a boy. In...
From the moment my kids were born, my husband I and I have gone out of our way to make them happy. During our early parenting years we lived in Florida, where eternal summers and weekend trips to Disneyworld are deemed normal. By the time...
Hiking is one of my favorite things in the world. Simply put, I love getting lost in the woods. Naturally, I encourage my children to embrace hiking too. Romantic as that sounds, family hikes are actually quite challenging when you have a 9, 7, and...
If there’s one discussion I can always count on having in the early stages of my work with college-essay writing students, it’s on the subject of word count. ...
Visiting Porto over the puente with my husband last weekend, we stumbled upon a long queue snaking along the tree-shaded Rua das Carmelitas....