Weathering the Tough Stuff
Two years ago, we surprised our daughter with an 8-week-old puppy.
Two days ago (as I write this), my family got surprised by an F1 tornado that slammed into an area close to …

dicho: “Amistades que son ciertas, mantienens la puertas abiertas.”
I got a text the other day from my best friend from grade school. We hung together tightly from the 4th grade to the 10th. Our day-to-day …

Keeping the Resolution to Connect
On most evenings before tuck-in now in 2012, my daughter and I sit on her bed, open a fat, blank book and list our “Gratitude and Goals.”
Simple gratitude for the day …

There are just three of us at home most of the time.
The dog barks a lot, and the cat is a pushy meower, but mostly it is like Silent Night around here all year long.
The …

Navigating the Holidays
I tried to Cyber shop. I really did.
I hid away in my office on Black Friday and scrolled through pages and pages of Amazing One Day Only Deals!
And then on Cyber Monday, I …

I am missing my primos.
It happens every Thanksgiving.
As I prepare my family’s feast, I get flooded with memories of us — in our good clothes, light sweaters and doused in violetas cologne — playing at …

I always tell my daughter I am grateful to be her mother.
Over and over and over again.
And, I always tell her it was to my extreme joy she was born the week of Thanksgiving, my …

A few weeks ago, my daughter, who is almost 8, asked for red nail polish like mine.
The first thing that popped into my head and out my mouth was: “It isn’t appropriate.”
But why, she asked, …

I ran out of money during my last semester of college.
Despite loans and grants and working, casi ni un centavo.
And then a $500 scholarship came through: the Polly Robinson Memorial Scholarship.
I use the scholarship’s full …

I had a wonderful and enlightening conversation with the writer and writing coach Charlotte Rains Dixon this summer.
I had turned to her for inspiration, and for encouragement, on finishing my novel, a fictional story I’ve …