As Maternal Mental Health Week comes to a close, I feel compelled to share a piece of my journey that I’ve kept mostly private—my greatest fear during my pregnancy after loss— in order to help raise awareness. This is #RealMotherhood, and there is #NoShame. Photo by Katie Donovan I’ve suffered from mental illness [...]
We live in New England, and our early spring has been so cold and snowy and rainy and not conducive to getting outside much. We've been so stir crazy! FINALLY, some nice weather has arrived, and oh, how it has changed the tone in our home. Turns out, now that our girl is walking, she'd [...]
My anxiety has been heightened the last few days. While I try to sort out all of the contributing factors, I pulled out a few of my favorite trusty quotes that affirm my strength to get through the times that feel awful. I wanted to share them with you too. I've printed these and taped [...]
Today we celebrated our son, Patrick’s, 4th birthday. Four. If I’m being honest, I think this has been the toughest birthday yet. I’ve very much felt the pull of life moving on without him, so today has been rough. I almost didn’t take Stitch to “school” this morning. We were very late, but we made [...]
Last week I spent some time with Pregnancy After Loss Support's founder, Lindsey Henke. At lunch before she dropped me off at the airport, we were chatting about our first born children--our stillbirths. She asked if Patrick was buried or cremated. I'm always a little defensive about this topic. I know we made the right [...]
Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash On New Year's Eve, I wrote this on the Meek Manor Facebook page: Have you seen all the inspiration going around about choosing a word for the new year? A word of the year will motivate you, inspire you, and help you focus. It's seriously all the rage. New Years Resolutions [...]
The theme for this Christmas season certainly seems to be "magic." Magic doesn't always make itself, though. Sometimes it needs a little help. And a nice dose of humor. We've been working through a bunch of Christmas activities from the Celebrate Activity Plan by Jamie Reimer of Hands on We Grow. It's been so helpful [...]
I've been talking a lot about the magic of the holiday season this year. I feel it in me, and I see it in my daughter's eyes. Each night, she opens her Advent present so carefully, so expectantly, so delightfully. It's precious. I want to bottle these moments. But, if I was to be really [...]
*Photograph by Margaret Belanger Last week, Stitch and I rode the elevator with a very frazzled pregnant mama. She asked how old Stitch was. After I replied she said her babe needed to cook a little longer. Since I had that opening, I asked when she was due. "Three weeks," she replied. "I [...]
Going places with my 20-month-old has started being much more of a process. She is choosing her own clothes and shoes, and she knows what she wants--even if it's to wear white dress shoes to the park. Before we can leave, she needs to choose a book and stuffie to bring with her in the [...]
