Real Life

  • Ways to Love Yourself: Self Love and Why It’s Important

    Ways to Love Yourself: Self Love and Why It’s Important

    Earlier this month I shared the speech I had the honor of giving at a local National Art Honor Society induction ceremony. The culmination of the speech was that once I had finally learned to love myself, I could love my own artwork, and feel confident calling myself an artist. Here I want to share…

  • A day in the life: questions from a 4-year-old

    A day in the life: questions from a 4-year-old

    Layla’s been home with me while I worked for a solid 6 months this year due to the pandemic. I’m sure I will look back on this time fondly, but to be honest, it’s been exhausting! While she’s generally a bubbly, funny, sweet little girl, her curiosity and questions have narrowed my vocabulary basically to…

  • It’s been awhile…

    It’s been awhile…

    …Since I wrote about my daughters. This blog started out as a pregnancy blog with Skyler way back in 2007. It made the obvious transition to mom blog but I eventually got out of habit of updating it. Life got busy and crazy and then Layla came along and I just quit writing about this…

  • So many paths forward

    So many paths forward

    That quarantine life is upon most of us now, and everyone is living and feeling a new reality. Disruptions in daily life are far reaching, whether as minor as not being able to go to your favorite restaurant or as major as not being able to work at your restaurant job. Lives have been paused,…

  • Swimming in anxiety with COVID-19

    Swimming in anxiety with COVID-19

    Anxiety comes naturally to me. I know I’m blessed and unique in that way (said no one ever). Big news events like this COVID-19 stuff and the stuff with Iran back in January can really do a number in my brain. I’ve come along way with managing my daily anxiety through exercise, sleep, nutrition, meditation,…

  • Labors of love

    Labors of love

    This weekend I spent a lot of time on the administrative aspects of this little art biz. Making tweaks and adding functionality to this website, setting up an email newsletter and automating as much of that as possible, starting a Facebook page, converting my Pinterest account to a business account so I could get some…

  • Humanity

    It was sunny and a humid 93 degrees as I was driving along Bannister Road and moving slowly through thick traffic. Stopped at a light, I observed the backyard of a townhouse where a middle-aged man was on his knees in the grass with a not-yet-inflates swimming pool spread before him. He was fiddling with…

  • The power of hand soap

    A few weeks ago I got a company-wide email inviting me to volunteer across the street at Children’s Mercy for a Mother’s Day card signing campaign for “Mercy Moms” – whose children are patients at the hospital. I immediately blocked my calendar hoping I could make it. When I got to the office today and…

  • The price we pay for love

    It’s been over a week since we said goodbye to our puppies in an unexpectedly tragic situation. Our home feels empty and eerily quiet and calm. We have never not had at least one dog in our 13 years as a family, and Ronnie and I both had dogs growing up and for the majority…