Grief changed everything I believed. About people. About love. About faith. But lately, I’ve found myself asking a question I thought I had already figured out: What does it actually mean to be a Christian? Not in the way we label ourselves. Not in the way we check a...
Back in September, I found the perfect house. It checked all of my boxes: enough space for the kids to each have their own bedrooms, a home office, and a fenced-in backyard. And, as icing on the cake, it’s not only in the kids’ current school zone but also within...
A couple of weeks ago, I decided it was finally time to do a massive purge and start letting go of some of the clutter that had piled up. But each box I opened felt like it contained tiny landmines. Keys still attached to a wristlet that says “Emily.” A book we bought...
Yesterday would have seemed like a normal, stress-free day to most people. But, for me, it was anything but ordinary. A dear friend needed someone to serve as their driver and babysitter for a simple outpatient procedure, and I said yes without hesitation. As we...
Even though Emily has been gone for two and a half years, I experienced a brand new thing today: she wasn’t the first person I wanted to talk to about a situation. As soon as I realized that someone else crossed my mind to call, I felt the blood leave my face. My...
For me, November 30 is an important day. I often think of it as my version of October 3rd (Emily would love the Mean Girls reference). It’s probably a bit romanticized if you stop to think about it, though. Yes, it was the day I realized how I felt about Emily....
Earlier this week, I threw a question out into the universe of social media: “If you’ve lost a spouse, what’s something you’ve learned along your journey that you wish you’d known beforehand (or at least sooner than you did)?If you...
During my therapy session yesterday, we spent the last 15 or so minutes talking about how revisiting my values and goals went. Thankfully, my values didn’t seem to shift at all in the aftermath of the breakup with Kaylee. And, with the exception of a few goals...
I have a love-hate relationship with the Memories feature on Facebook. I greatly enjoy when it provides pictures or videos of the kids when they were younger, and I often laugh over the ridiculous stuff I posted when I was in college. But then there are days like...
I built a desk this evening. The directions said it would be best to build it with two people, but I’m home alone and always up for a challenge, so I decided to try it solo. Around 9:00 pm, I realized I never really ate dinner, so I decided to have half of an...
