by Robin | Sep 9, 2013 | Encouragement, Faith, Family, Inspiring, Kids, Memoir, Mom stuff, Nostalgia, Personal
She addressed me by my favorite name behind Mom and Aunt, the one that gives shape to identity– “Mama D, why do you talk to us?” I cocked my head to the side not sure what she was really asking, like maybe I was saying too much or dragging her...
by Robin | Jun 28, 2013 | Mom stuff, Parenting, Personal, Teens & Tweens
Lost in a sea of thought… He's my third-born child, my second-born son, my youngest…my baby boy. When he was born he was blue from crown to sole, and, delirious I declared, "He's a Smurf!" Today he's nothing but bronze...
by Robin | May 28, 2013 | Advice, Marriage, Personal
We've been married 25 years, a quarter century, over half our lives. No matter how you phrase it, especially in our culture of divorce-made-easy, that's a looong time. I like how my friend Patsy Clairmont puts it, "We've survived each...
by Robin | May 21, 2013 | Memoir, Personal
"Is everything okay?" he calls out, unleashing his dog on the far side of his driveway, beyond the vacant lot on which I'm trespassing. I had noticed them half an hour earlier, at the beginning of my hilly, neighborhood powerwalk....
by Robin | May 10, 2013 | Family, Mom stuff, Parenting, Personal, Simple Mom, Teens & Tweens
I was a bystander this time, an observer, learning a lesson again I am so quick to forget: Words are powerful and persuasive and have the capacity to change lives. I know this, I even live it, but watching and witnessing a relative stranger speak wisdom into my teen...
by Robin | May 8, 2013 | (in)courage, Advice, Beauty, Faith, Parenting, Personal
"How do I know if I am beautiful?" she asked me. "What is beauty?" "What if I am not good enough?" Her short email wrung tears from my heart. Only then did I realize when I wrote Beauty Marks – an...