My husband and my oldest have a lot in common. Yeah, yeah, they share genes. And they look a lot alike. Similar build (long and skinny), similar coloring. It is, however, beyond skin deep for them. They have a passion to create, they can spend hours with paints and pencils, paper and a head-full of [...]

So, I left you all Jess wondering what happened next, right? We had no answers other than the fact that my daughter was overly dramatic and depressed and generally making all of this stuff up so that more people would pay attention to her. Whew. While I did internet searches on horrible diseases, and took [...]

When I was a child I was fortunate enough to have cousins close in age, as well as friends that lived in the neighborhood of my cousins. One idyllic day we were wandering the neighborhood (this was before the lockdown that is our current society) and talking to the neighbors. One neighbor had a lovely [...]

To give a little background, in November of 2009 Fawn was very, very active. She was dancing competitively (placed in the top third at the regional competition), practicing at home daily, going for hikes, walking, running, and generally being a normal kid. A normal, very busy kid. She was 11. When 2010 rolled around, all [...]

First, my husband said that my title “Spoons” was unnecessarily cryptic. I was referring to this.   Second, I have decided for my sanity, to nickname my girls. That way, I can refer to them more specifically. The nicknames are kid-approved and are (drum roll, please, my brilliance is underwhelming): Fawn: 12, chronically ill with [...]

Evidently, I have needed to get some things off of my chest. But not on real people, of course. They have responses and answers and questions. That being said, I want to give a shout-out to Brie cheese. And to apologize to that cheese. Dear Mr. (Ms.?) Brie, I must apologize. You were not greeted [...]

If I was brave enough to overwhelm people with the truth, if I was courageous enough to be (forgive me, I’m going to quote Christians) “real,” I would answer the question of how we are doing. The truth is, my daughter rarely sleeps anymore. Her head hurts too much to let her. We’ve helped her [...]

I have already broken one of my halfhearted resolutions. I cried for the third day in a row. Life is hard. And it isn’t fair. Not even a little bit. February will be the one year anniversary of the downward spiral of my daughter. She isn’t dying. Her condition isn’t life threatening. I feel like [...]