You Owe Me Grace (and I owe you an update)
It’s been ages since I blogged, but I was scheduled to post on A Life Overseas today and it was a good reminder to update you “at home” here. So before I tell you what’s over on A Life Overseas, here’s what I’ve been up to in the last month. In no particular order … Watching Playschool, eating mandarins, and feeding chickens. My parents have been wonderful at helping care for Dominic, but I’ve still had plenty of time with the little man. We’ve discovered the kids show Playschool and also spent lots of time roaming around...
read moreTwelve (very serious) tips on how to get your picky child to eat
Since Dominic was born twenty months ago, I’ve gotten good at letting most unsolicited parenting advice roll off my back. I can shrug and smile now when people tell me my child is tired or cold, or when total strangers look offended when Dominic doesn’t respond to their overtures with open-armed affection and kisses on demand. However, there’s one parenting mantra that people trot out that I could quite happily never hear again. That line is: “When a child gets hungry enough, they’ll eat.” This really pushes my buttons. You...
read moreIntestinal Fortitude: An essay in Notre Dame Magazine
I wrote this essay a month after we arrived in Laos, way back in 2010. It was bought that same year by Notre Dame Magazine. They finally printed it in their spring 2013 issue, which came out just a week before I left Luang Prabang. The piece was originally titled The Hungry Months and the editors renamed it Intestinal Fortitude. I’ve included the beginning here for you (to read the whole piece jump on over to Notre Dame Magazine). Below the excerpt I’ve added some photos from that trip to Viengkham. Looking at those shots now is a...
read moreNormal life is taking all my time
“What have you been up to this morning?” Mikes asked me via Skype from Bangkok. “I didn’t even get online until 10:45 today,” I told him, still stunned. “I’ve been changing diapers and emptying trash cans and replacing toilet rolls and tidying up rooms and making beds and cooking breakfast and doing laundry and hanging out laundry and … normal life is taking all my time!” “There’s a post title,” Mike said. (Apparently, not only is normal life taking all my time but the events of the past months have taken all of my...
read moreFarewell, Luang Prabang
Ever since I published my post discussing how I hadn’t taken time yet to think about farewelling Luang Prabang, Mike has been bugging encouraging me to write a goodbye post on things I’ll miss about this little fairytale town. He even wrote his own list to show me how it’s done, titled the document “I like LPB”, and put it in our shared Dropbox folder. Mike’s list has 36 items on it. I haven’t read them yet, because I figured that might be cheating. I thought briefly about just posting his list and being done with it, but...
read moreTimeless Choices
Christmas was just a couple of weeks ago, right? I remember thinking that I needed to write a post on books I’d loved in 2012, set some creative goals for 2013, and find a great birthday present for Mike to make up for the fact that my Christmas presents consisted of some basil seeds, my old broken kindle, and a child’s toy with a bite taken out it. But now it’s April. I still need to do all of that, and Mike’s birthday was in the beginning of March. I’m taking a deep, soothing breath and telling myself that this is to be expected...
read moreGoodbyes: Does Practice Really Make Perfect?
Change is in the air. After three years here in Luang Prabang, we’re leaving. My husband, Mike, is taking up a new job in Vientiane (the capital of Laos), so we’re packing up our life here and moving. We’re also having another baby in just over four months. Because of the lack of quality medical care in Laos, it would be less than wise for me to give birth in this country. Because I have a chronic health condition called lymphedema that makes enduring hot weather heat difficult and damaging, it would also be less than wise to stay here,...
read moreGreat news, good news, and bad news
We’re back home in Luang Prabang after our week in Krabi and our whirlwind day in the hospital during the return trip. It’s been bittersweet unpacking and settling back in. “Sweet” because it’s always nice to come home and unpack and settle into a familiar space. “Bitter” because this won’t be home for very much longer … not even as long as we’d thought it would be, because times and plans are a-changing. There are several posts I’d like to write at the moment, but time is tight so philosophical musings about...
read moreHolidays and Hospitals
We’re on R&R leave this week. For those of you not familiar with the aid world, R&R stands for Rest and Relaxation. Twice a year Mike gets an extra week of leave we can use to leave Luang Prabang and fly somewhere regional for a little mini-break. This time we’ve headed to the south of Thailand. We’re in Krabi, near a beach called Ao Nang. We’ve rented a small two-bedroom townhouse for six nights that shares a lovely pool with its neighbors. We’ve spent the week introducing Dominic to boats and beaches, catching him as he...
read moreLooking for home after a global upbringing
It’s book month over on A Life Overseas!! I love books and I was thrilled be able to share a little about my latest book, Love At The Speed Of Email. I’m also giving away three electronic copies (PDF, MOBI, or EPUB versions available). You can find out how to enter over at the bottom of my post over on A Life Overseas. Love At The Speed Of Email is a memoir – the story of how I met my husband while he was in Papua New Guinea working for a humanitarian organization and I was in Los Angeles working as a stress management trainer. It’s...
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