I have five kids. That's five opinions about dinner, five people who need something from me the second I sit down, and five separate negotiations happening before 7am while I'm stirring oatmeal. For a long time I thought good parenting meant saying yes as often as I could stand it. I was wr

If I made someone else feel seen in hard times then that’s all that really matters

Last week I noticed a hair on Marielle's underarm and thought it was mine. That happens when you have long hair and five kids. Your strands end up on everyone. So I reached over to brush it off her, the way I've picked my own hair off her shoulders a thousand times, and it didn't com

I’d love to hear from you! What's one thing you do to take care of yourself as a parent? Share it below, you might inspire another mom or dad who needs the reminder today.

The overnight I keep coming back to happened in an emergency department, and I have thought about it probably a thousand times since. I was at Boston Children's. It was my first stretch working the ED, I was newly licensed in Massachusetts, and I was about four months out from having my fourth

A year ago I would have laughed at you, and not politely either. I mean the kind of laugh where you put a hand on somebody's arm because you assume they're kidding, and then you have to rearrange your face when you realize they aren't. Take the TV away from all five of my kids? For the

By the time I got to my last birth, I had a routine. Some of it was practical. Most of it was spiritual, and the spiritual parts carried more weight than anything I zipped into a hospital bag. Here are five things I did to get ready. 1. I made my labor playlist before I made my birth plan My

Twenty-two. That's how old I was when I got pregnant with my child. I had a job. I liked that job.. I remember telling my mother in a very light way that I was just going to take a little break. A break. Like a song you stop through and come back to later. That was 2016. Here's th

1. Every Child Needs a Different Version of You What worked for one won't always work for the next. Personalities, love languages, needs they're all different. I had to unlearn the idea that I could "copy-paste" parenting across my kids. Each child pulls out a new layer of me.

Nine is such a beautifully complicated age. If you are in this season, you already know. One minute they are confidently belting out sheet music for the choir or dominating on the soccer field, and the next, they are crying over a misplaced hair tie and needing you to hold them exactly like you

We have all been there. You finally get to sit down at a cute local cafe or a classic diner, you order the massive stack of stuffed French toast, and by 11:30 AM, you are utterly exhausted and need a nap. Listen, when you are running a business and wrangling five kids out the door for a weekend

I caught myself doing it again this week. I was standing in the middle of the kitchen, completely overstimulated by the sheer volume of our screen-free summer. I was stepping over a massive pile of damp towels from the local pond, staring at a sink full of dishes, while listening to two of the kids

Let’s be completely honest for a second: wandering the aisles of Target alone with a coffee in hand is a deeply spiritual experience for a mother. It is the ultimate mental reset. But when you are actively trying to feed five kids, a partner, and yourself, a Target run is no longer just a leisur

Read that again slowly. Your worth is not measured by how much you get done. Somewhere along the way, so many mothers learned that resting has to be earned. That the sink has to be empty, the laundry folded, the baby asleep, and everyone else taken care of before you are finally allowed to sit d

If you spend ninety percent of your weekend sitting in a folding chair on a turf field, you already know that packing the cooler is the most important part of the morning. Getting five kids out the door for a weekend lacrosse tournament is basically an Olympic sport. Between making sure everyone

If you are sitting in your car right now, taking an extra five minutes in the driveway before walking into your house just so you can have a moment of silence, I need you to take a deep breath. If you feel like you are constantly split into a million different pieces, completely overwhelmed, and

Why is it so hard to believe that a 20 pound, two year old girl who still wears diapers can completely hold a household of seven people hostage over the color of a plastic cup? Seriously. When people hear I have five kids, they always assume the older kids are the ones dictating the tempo of the

I spend approximately 90% of my weekend sitting in a folding chair. When you are raising five kids, your entire personality basically becomes "Sideline Mom." We spend a lot of time at the soccer fields, and I genuinely love a good soccer game. But I have to make a very bold confession to