Denver Mama

It is late in the day.  Our living room is swathed in a sheet of sunlight.  My little ones are perched on bent knees beneath this wall of light building elaborate Legoscapes and Playmobil camp spreads.  This ethereal scene occurs daily in our home unless the afternoon sun has gone hiding.  I have grown to [...]

The snow has been falling for two straight days.  On this particular day we set off for a sledding adventure.  Each new step forged over prairie, out through the vast unknown.  I know this field well, or at least I thought I did.  I’ve been exploring it for three years now. But like a good [...]

It is a new year; a fresh start. The other night, before I closed my eyes and bid 2011 adieu, I reread some pieces I wrote over the year here and on my blog.  Rarely do I go back and reread something I have written.  For many reasons, I just don’t like to do it. [...]

One by one I hauled the boxes of Christmas tree ornaments and decorations up from the basement with the pitter-patter of tiny feet swirling around me, creating the same magical feeling as watching the snow falling outside.  As each box was flung open by small, impatient hands, glee was palpable.  I could feel my children’s [...]

A candle is burning in the kitchen, the smell of winter and fire and woods wafting toward me and wrapping me in a soft embrace.  My little ones are only a few feet away, building pirate ships and get-away boats out of Legos on the rug, the fireplace aglow.  I’ve made a latte, the sound [...]

I’m working outside in the garden still.  My feet are bare even though the grass is cold in the early mornings now.   It’s as if those icy drops of dew are there to send a warning from the bottoms of my feet straight to my soul.  “Soon”, it says, “you won’t round this bend every [...]

He came downstairs, dressed in shorts, a too big hand-me-down t-shirt, striped socks pulled up as high on his legs as they could go and running shoes.  His ball cap was slightly crooked, just like his smile.  Silently, with a million words in his eyes, he walked towards me then cut hard left and grabbed [...]

We are at a farm.  The Littles run full speed ahead for they have spotted kid-sized tractor tricycles.  They pause for a quick second, long enough only to choose a style and color of tractor then hop on with gusto and take off, looking back only to catch my smile.  There I stand, left in the dust.  I [...]

The ducklings are waiting at the front door.  They’re clad in hats, rash guards, gloves (oddly, the littlest duckling likes to wear a glove most of the day).  The oldest duckling is carrying a bottle of sunscreen, fished out of our pool bag which now hangs by the front door replaced by our bag of [...]

Recently, I was asked who and what inspires me to be a writer and a photographer.  I surprised myself, not by my immediate answer and how it wasn’t names of writers or photographers that came to mind but, by how closely that answer was sitting at the top of my soul and consciousness, touching the outside ready [...]