Family Traditions and Saving Broken Things

I baked these pumpkin muffins this morning. They’re sitting on this old marble washstand I bought in 1992. I got it at the old Spivey’s Antique Store that used to be on May Avenue off Northwest 23rd Street here in OKC. I was married to Juliette’s dad then. In 1998, a year after...

Read More

1990s Bride | Let No Man Put Asunder

1990s Bride This picture of me – a 1990s bride — was taken 23 years ago today. My father performed the wedding ceremony. March 9 will always be a special day to me even though the marriage ended in 1998. I have never posted a picture from my first wedding. It’s painful for me...

Read More

I hate you, Vera Bradley.

It’s after eleven and everyone’s asleep, so I decide to call it a night. But, not before I check on my kids one more time. I like to watch them sleep, give them each one last kiss on the cheek, and whisper something in their ears. I love you. Jesus loves you. Everything will be OK....

Read More

How To Rebound From Anything

I have taken two long walks in my life and both of them were very short. The first walk was from my front door to my car, which was sitting in the driveway. It was December 1997, and I was returning to work after maternity leave. Juliette was just five weeks old. The second walk was 14 months...

Read More

Attack of the Crickets

“But the Master of the sea heard my despairing cry, From the waters lifted me, now safe am I…” –From Love Lifted Me and James Rowe, 1912 I thought I would tell you about the crickets. When we bought the house in the mid 1990s, it was with the understanding that the previous...

Read More

10 myths about divorce

A revised version of this blog post about divorce rates in Oklahoma and myths about divorce aired on KOSU Radio January 15, 2013. I have nothing here to sell you, Just some things that I will tell you. Some things I know will chill you to the bone… –From George Jones and The Grand Tour...

Read More

A Word in Due Season

About 11 of 12 years ago, my friend Louisa told me something no one had ever told me before and no one has told me since. She would not remember it and I would not forget it. I told her this yesterday within the context of her leaving her position as Editor-in-Chief of Oklahoma Today. She’s...

Read More

The Way Things Should Be

We’ll have it good We’ll have the life we knew we would My word is good — From the Plain White Ts and Hey There Delilah The Way Things Should Be One day, several years ago when Juliette was in preschool, she had a particularly bad day. I asked her how she would like things to be...

Read More

Chasing Normal

You can take many paths to get to the same place. –An old Apache saying With divorce, the Etch-a-Sketch is turned upside and family life, as children know it, disappears. The aluminum powder picture that re-emerges often casts dads in minor roles. Sometimes, he’s left off the credits...

Read More

Pin It on Pinterest