First, and this is key; you must declare, “I’ve always wanted chickens! Wouldn’t it be fun?” (Even if you just thought of it yesterday.) You imagine restoring the run-down coop in your farm yard…
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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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I shivered, tucking my hands into the pockets of my brand new Carhartt coveralls. Just the year before, I wore dress pants and skirts and walked the halls as a high school counselor. My…
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For weeks, people on social media have been excited about spring. More light! Longer days! My cranky side thinks, Yay, more hours for my husband to be gone! My stomach turns in knots in…
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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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Nine years ago, love looked like counting down the minutes at work on Friday, then breaking the speed limit to get to the ranch. My stomach full of butterflies—all to spend the weekend with…
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At my desk, in the laundry room. At the kitchen table, surrounded by Legos. In the car, using talk-to-text because I know I’ll forget by the time I get to where I’m going. In…
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“I was a high school counselor before I got married.” “I have a master’s degree.” Years ago, I sometimes found myself trying to drop these sentences into conversations. I wasn’t necessarily trying to brag.…
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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…