Despite all the hype surrounding the just-released movie Bridesmaids, I wasn't planning on seeing it this weekend. I'm one of the few folks I know that didn't really enjoy The Hangover, and I wasn't looking forward to sitting through a  movie that I thought was simply The Hangover with chicks--c… Read full post »

A pair of robins chose our front porch as their nesting grounds last spring. A plain, grapevine wreath was their home—their nest snug in a crook just where the vines curve from top to bottom. At first, I didn’t realize what was happening on our front porch. I noticed stray… Read full post »

I have a beautiful uterus.

Or at least that's what my doctors tell me. To be exact, "a beautiful uterine cavity." I should be proud, right?

I was told that my uterus is a lovely shade of pink. That it has smooth walls and is the shape and size of a… Read full post »

This past Saturday  my four-year-old daughter, Clara, and I visited the grave of my second daughter, Eleanor, who was stillborn last May.  While I know my responses to her questions on death and dying aren't perfect, her own response to the death of her sister and our corresponding grief is… Read full post »

When my therapist told me that one day I'd be able to grieve fully the loss of my daughter, I didn't quite understand what she meant--I thought I'd been grieving ever since the day she died. But then I read Knuffle Bunny Free, the third in a series of terrific children's books… Read full post »

12:01 a.m. on January 1, 2011, cannot come fast enough for me.

I’ve been looking forward to ringing in a new year and gleefully kicking out the old for months now. A friend asked me the other night what I change I hoped to bring into my life with the… Read full post »

“Choose from several gorgeous styles, add your own captions, and invite your friends to look back on a great year.”

I have seen this statement posted in numerous friends’ Facebook statuses over the past two days. It sure sounds like fun—let’s compile all of your Faceb… Read full post »

It's been a long time since I've had a crush on a band. But then I discovered The Avett Brothers, a folk/roots/punk/rock/pop band from North Carolina.

My husband and I were given the Avett Brothers EP The Gleam by a friend about two years ago, and it slowly became one of… Read full post »

I want to be superhero.

Not just any superhero. I don’t want to fly or become invisible or walk through walls. And I don’t want to help the entire world or even my hometown. I want to protect, to offer comfort and hope, and to offer my… Read full post »