Pigs were flying and hell froze over yesterday. My husband and I found ourselves with a house to ourselves after my parents volunteered to take our two monkeys for the night. Not having been in this situation for…um…ever…we decided to embrace it. So we ordered take out and settled in to watch the first season […] Read more…
Archive of ‘Does This Mean I’m a Grownup?’ category
Talking To My Young Kids About Drugs
Two things happened last week that made me realize I needed to talk to my six and eight-year-old sons about drugs. The first happened while standing in the grocery store checkout line. My six-year-old turned to me and said, “Justin Bieber is in prison for drugs.” Panicked I tried to play it cool and […] Read more…
Sleeping Arrangement Insanity
I sleep in utter and complete chaos. Every morning I wake up drenched with sweat, slightly claustrophobic, and curled into an impossibly small ball on my California King sized bed wedged in between my husband on my left, my eight year old son on the right and our one-hundred-thirty pound rescue dog who was thirty-five […] Read more…
Slowing It Down For The Sake Of My Sons
My friend Susan doesn’t call me “Crazy Lady Nicole” without good reason. I am insane. I lead a jam packed existence and I like it that way. I thrive on challenge. I crave challenge at work, and the challenge of fitting in time with friends, family, community commitments, a body drenching work out, learning a new skill, meeting […] Read more…
The Power of a Good Old Fashioned Sob-Fest
I have two sons, ages eight and six. In my quest to raise them free of misogynistic tendencies I try to let them cry when they feel the need. The key word is “try” because sometimes I become impatient and tell them to quit crying like babies. I am after all, a mere mortal and occasionally […] Read more…
The 2013 List of Working Mother Gratitudes
10. The Fellini-esque absurdity of trying to explain the Miley Cyrus “Wrecking Ball” video to my eight year old son reminded me how deeply creative I can be when backed into a corner. 9. Managing to walk the fine line between a glass of wine to take the edge off and full-blown alcoholism for […] Read more…
Are We Done Yet: When To Stop Having Babies?
When my husband and I first decided to try to have babies I remember having this weird and woozy out-of-body moment where I thought to myself, “So this is it? We just decide to have a family and then we get to do it? Shouldn’t I have to get a permit or ask my parents?” Turns out […] Read more…
When Women Attack
When my friend, Jane, sent me a link to an article entitled: Sorry Being a Mother Is Not the Most Important Job In the World I felt like taking off my earrings, putting my hair in a ponytail, smearing Vaseline on my face, putting on all my rings and street fighting the woman who wrote […] Read more…
God, Yes I Am Going There.
The concept of God or a higher power is a funny thing. I tell people I have to go to church every Sunday because I am such a sinner. Which is only partly true. The main reason I go is because I like it. I really and truly like it. I was sent to Catholic school […] Read more…
The Perfectly Imperfect Marriage
It’s been two weeks since I yelled at my husband and told him to go f**k himself. Twice to be exact. It doesn’t really matter what it was about because frankly in any long-term relationships you realize after a few go-rounds that you essentially have the same fight periodically – like Groundhog day. But […] Read more…