I am in The Next Phase of parenting. Today, my boys are six and four. There are no more toddlers running about. No more baby spoons, bibs and bottles.

Will they remember the times we danced in the rain? Or the snowmen we've built that have slowly died each spring only to be resurrected again next winter?

We watch for the change, but it still sneaks up on us.

When I think about the birthday celebration goal in simple terms, it is the same as any other day–a smile on my child’s face and the assurance they feel loved and fed physically, emotionally and spiritually. That’s basic.

You never baked before becoming a mom. What makes people think you are going to start now?

Who am I when my kids don't need me?

I guess I’m shocked not by what she said, but by how badly I needed to hear it.

Hearts are a big deal at our house. We draw and paint them, collect rocks shaped like them, and now we eat them.

It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s just that when they talk to me, my body goes haywire.

No amount of Pinterest pins or garden remodels will make me a better gardener, but I’ll garden anyway, because the very act of gardening feeds me.