Island Travel Interviews- Australia, Take 1 (Sydney)
Read the full post on MackinawRoad.com Which Island Will You Be Talking About and Why Did You Choose This Island? Australia. Which, according to the Internet, may or may not be an island, given it has “continent” status, but either way, it’s surrounded by water and we visited it in our Spring, their Fall, of...
Traveler Tips For Leaving the Kids at Home & Actually Enjoying Your Trip
My husband and I have taken a handful of trips away from our kids since we became parents, but none so far as when we jet-setted off to Sydney, Australia for my younger brother’s wedding. In truth, the anxiety about being so far away from my babies overshadowed the excitement of actually traveling to an...
Mantra for the New Mom of Two
Forging through those first sleepless nights felt like the hazing of a first time mom again. But I wasn’t a first-time mom. Through the eyes and experience of a second-time mom, I tried to remind myself that the struggle was only temporary. A line from an old Elton John song kept playing through my...
Kindling the Curiosity of an “Interesting” Kid
Cheerios, jellied cranberries and vanilla ice cream: the three food groups my little brother ate growing up. He was the third of four kids and I’m sure my mom just thought, well at least he’s eating something. This same brother of mine just got married and, as my parents described to the guests at...
Discovering the Natural in an “Unnatural Birth”
I’ve never been good with blood—or pain for that matter. I’ve fainted while ripping off a Band-Aid, getting a flu shot, and reading the vampire birth scene from the third Twilight book. I was even wary of reading ahead in What to Expect When You’re Expecting during my first pregnancy because I didn’t want...
Part of the Time, Life’s Mighty Good
Then, something miraculous happened. My dad emailed me a direct line to the past. My uncle had come across a typed essay my grandma, my new baby’s namesake, had submitted to Reader’s Digest sometime in the mid-1960s....
Will Your Family History Survive the Digital Dark Age?
Now that I have kids of my own, I feel constantly torn between living in the moment and capturing the moment. Maybe that’s just part of parenting today, but here are four ways to save the moments in your own family history. ...
New Traditions Born After Spending Baby’s First Christmas in the Hospital
When my first baby was born, my husband and I decided we weren’t going to travel for the holidays. She was a preemie, we were recovering NICU parents, and she was only a few months old. Plus, my husband had always been a closeted Clark Griswold, and wanted to make C...
A Perfect Attendance Trophy Still Counts
When my parents downsized their house, my mom seemed overjoyed that she could finally unload the boxes of memorabilia she’d amassed throughout my childhood. My husband received a similar delivery from his mom when we got married. Both were unsentimental send-offs of stuff to the rightful owners. We moved these unopened boxes from apartment...
When an Old Scar Reveals a New Truth About Motherhood
Most births have a “plan” and mine was fairly simple: Give me the drugs and we’ll go from there. What I never expected was my husband and I driving home from our first birthing class, imagining what lay ahead of us, and having my water suddenly break all over the passenger seat. I remember...