By late March, the buds start to open, revealing delicate pink and white petals. We hop in the van and drive toward Show Kinen Park, stopping on the way to pick up a conbini lunch of fried chicken, nigiri, and egg salad sandwiches. We walk familiar paths to a grassy field surrounded by trees heavy with blossoms–an ideal spot for hanami. Hanami means “flower viewing” … Continue reading Hanami
If you give a mom leftover birthday cake, she’ll want a glass of milk to go with it. When she opens the cupboard to get a glass, she’ll realize she forgot to run the dishwasher. After she starts the dishwasher, she’ll add dishwasher detergent to the grocery list. Which reminds her–She’s supposed to pick up her grocery order this morning.⠀⠀⠀ Continue reading If You Give a Mom Leftover Birthday Cake
The sunflower seeds were a Mother’s Day gift, handed to me just weeks before our cross-country move. My son’s kindergarten teacher, anticipating our road trip, sent the unopened packet of seeds home rather than having them planted in soil. “You can take them with you and plant them when you get there,” she said. But in the craziness of moving across three time zones with three young kids, a dog, etc., we forgot to plant them. One year later, I spotted the seeds in the refrigerator door, where I had stashed them in the hopes that they’d last longer. I found an empty pot in the garage and a small bag of potting soil, and poked a single seed into the crumbs of dirt. Continue reading Growth
It’s that time of year: recruitment! No, not the kind you’ve seen on RushTok, but recruitment for Room Parents! Take our quiz to see if you have what it takes to be the ultimate Room Parent. If you answered… …mostly a: You are prime Room Parent material. The only question left: Why haven’t you signed up yet?! …mostly b: Err…maybe you can help out on … Continue reading Are you Room Parent Material?
to sleep in past 6:03 a.m. cake for breakfast to finish my iced coffee before the ice melts a day free of ads for wrinkle serums and smoothers common sense gun legislation new jeans that fit without having to try them on first for someone else to potty train my toddler to lip sync battle with Paul Rudd dinner I didn’t cook a summer without … Continue reading What I really want for my birthday this year
I remembered the planetary parade while the kids brushed their teeth, so we grabbed coats piled into the car wearing pajamas. At the beach, red, orange, and yellow bands decorated the horizon in the wake of the sun. Along with the waxing moon hanging above us, we were able to spot four of the five planets on display that night–Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter. We … Continue reading Searching the Sky
Now, If you have an award here for someone who can carry a trunkful of grocery bags into the house without breaking a single egg, I’m your girl. A prize for knowing how many bowel movements each child has had on a given day and what their favorite flavor toothpaste is? Bam. Award for forgetting to brush a child’s teeth or going way too long between haircuts and nail trims? Yep. But Mother of the Year? Even the statuette I’m holding looks exhausted and fragile. Wait, is this supposed to look like me? Did you guys model this after the picture of me picking sand out of my eyes at the beach last summer? Is this just another plastic action figure for me to trip on? Continue reading MEGOT Status
Motherhood is messy. It’s mounds of mac ‘n’ cheese and macrame art. Motherhood magnifies mere mortals, makes Marian martyrs out of mall rats. Motherhood is a masquerade, a mission, a mirror. It’s the ministry of missing mittens. It mutates and metabolizes, muddles minds and mesmerizes. It’s the merging of meek and mighty. It’s malodorous and melodious. It’s midwinter mud pies and midweek mayhem. Motherhood is … Continue reading [The Beauty of] M[otherhood]
My hair has fallen out two more times since I had my daughter. I have peed my pants on multiple occasions, sometimes in public, often while running but also from sneezing (always because I didn’t do enough kegels). Almost nine years into motherhood, my body is still capricious. Fickle. Unforgiving. But this body has also nursed three babies. She has cared for feverish kiddos while wiping her own drippy nose and made broccoli cheese soup from scratch with a toddler strapped to her back. This is the body that kisses foreheads goodnight and dances in the living room after dinner. My body has been on a journey, but she’s returning as someone I recognize, someone I can rely on. Continue reading A Body I Can’t Trust
Married, thirty-something mother of three seeks friends. Continue reading Wanted: Friendship
Melissa Kutsche 