Al fresco season blew into Wisconsin on a charcoal-scented cloud this weekend and we all -- traveling troubadours, weekend skippers, ATV drivers, backyard barbecuers, Timber Rattler tailgaters, cabin cleaners and Midwest munchers -- dusted off our picnic tables and bellied up with glee. Food tastes better when you can eat it outside. Music sounds sweeter [...]
Mother’s Day can be a minefield for almost anyone involved in the foster care system. The trip wires are there – the handmade gifts, the Muffins with Mom, the poignancy of a day that celebrates something people desperately want but can not always achieve. A handful of dandelions or a picture drawn with a fat [...]
I visited my friend Trina on the day she passed away nearly 12 years ago. She looked at me fiercely from her hospital bed and said, “I don’t want to die.” Had I not been overwhelmed by the sadness of the moment and the absolute finality of our time together, I might have responded more [...]
I have been a mother for 34 years. I have also been a godmother, a mother in-law, a room mother, foster mother and, on at least two occasions when I’ve encountered someone with an exceptionally foul mouth having a very bad day, a mother-rhymes-with-trucker. Mother’s Day is for me. I like to celebrate it by [...]
As I make hasty plans to celebrate the final college graduation of my maternal career, I am pondering the beauty of parental transitions. I should be confirming reservations, packing, even figuring out what I’m going to wear. But I accidentally pulled out an old shoebox that sent me down a familiar detour and now I’m [...]