“Let me quick take your picture,” I say, shuffling Nora up my hip while posing Allie on the bus steps. She smiles, her hands tucked nervously under her chin. My nose burns, but the…
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The knife slices through the potato, the sharp edge hitting the cutting board with each chop. Thwack. Thwack. It’s not quite noon, but I want the mashed potatoes made now, so all I have…
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“She’s probably the last little one we’ll have at harvest,” my father-in-law said, looking at Nora in her car seat. She smiled at me, her cheeks covered in chocolate, leftover from dinner in the…
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My son, Rhett, is stuffing his feet into the wrong shoes when he asks me if I’m going to play football with him and his dad. I’m in the hallway on the way to…
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In my bedroom, I have an old wooden stool. The paint is chipped, and the legs are marred with scratches and dents, probably from being dropped over the years. You can see where glue…
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The chair rocked back and forth, my baby’s sniffles the only sound in the quiet room. In the dark, I looked down, and she lifted her head off my chest and smiled at me.…
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This is my first summer as a mom of three, and I feel like I’m failing. The smell of burnt hamburger fills the room, intensified by my baby’s sobs from the playmat on the…
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As a kid, I remember thinking of Christmas as a mile-marker. I would look back over how much had changed from one year to the next. In high school, I’m sure I wondered if…
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Last week, I set my phone downand went for a walk.I put one foot in front of the other—the earth solid beneath my feet.The crunch of gravel rang through my ears,instead of the noise…
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The five of us piled into the van before the sun came up, my grandpa hunched behind the wheel. We crested the mountain as the sun came up, the elevation wrapped us in cool…