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Reading with Claire
Every night, the routine is the same. I read a book to Tommy. I read a book to Austin. Then I sit on the end of their bed until they fall asleep. They have a bunk bed, but they both sleep in the bottom bunk together. This is something they did for most of 2017, and it seemed like last fall, Austin was ready to move to the top bunk. Of course, now all bets are off. It’s actually comforting to me that they have each other, even if it means that when one of them wakes up and comes to my bed in the middle of the night, the…
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Why Being a Widowed Single Mom is So Hard
I realize the title of this post could be an entire book. There are like 1000 reasons why being a widowed single mom is so hard. Today, however, I think I may have narrowed it down to one. The day started out like many days have started out in the past 6 months. I woke up before the kids, came downstairs for some coffee and to prep the amazing amount of things that my kids need for their days. My kids have learned to help each other, because they get that mom cannot possibly do everything they need. So Austin went and got Tommy his clothes for the day and…
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Single
I was chatting with some of my girlfriends the other day when we began to discuss this guy one of them knew who lives in another city. I can’t remember his name, so I’ll call him Bob. Anyway, Bob is apparently single and my friend wanted to find him a girlfriend. We all spent time having a heated, if somewhat ridiculous discussion about which teacher at our kids’ elementary school we’d like to see him date. Then, one of the women there said, “But really, I don’t really have any friends who are single anymore.” Others chimed in. A few people had some divorced friends, but most of the situations…
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Nana
One day near the end of the school year, I picked Austin up and he insisted that we call his Nana. “Today at school,” he told me, “we had a cake made out of ice cream for a birthday party. I want to call Nana and see if they have those kind of cakes in Texas!” I smiled, and felt a bit guilty too. Had I really never introduced ice cream cake to my 7-year-old? We called Nana, and she picked up on the first ring. “Hi Nana,” Austin started. “Austin!” Nana shouted. I could picture her face – smiling and full of life. “Guess what?” Austin asked her. “We had…
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The Scar
Claire has been to the emergency room exactly one time, when she ate a pistachio nut and had an allergic reaction that had to be treated with epinephrine. My boys, however, have been at least a dozen times between them. They’ve received stitches and slings and warnings from doctors to never again do whatever it was they were doing. It’s a stereotype to be sure, but damn if my boys don’t go to the ER much more than my girl. I managed to make it through six months without anyone getting hurt. But of course it was Austin who broke that streak last Friday night. After Shawn died, this was actually…
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A Review of “A Widow’s Guide to Healing”
I went on Amazon the other day and put in “widow book.” Now that I’m emerging – just a tiny bit – from the fog of the first few months, I’m trying to figure out how to make my life work. I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on about loss and grief. I talk to everyone and I keep going to different types of therapy. I know there’s no magic answer, but I figure it can’t hurt to just try everything I can to help ease the pain. Anyway, Amazon recommended this book called, “A Widow’s Guide to Healing,” and so I bought it. I’ve spent the…
There’s No Handbook for How to Do This
