As I sat on my balcony with a big cup of coffee in one of my oldest and most favorite mugs, on one of Nashville’s most perfect mornings, I looked out over the downtown and the amphitheater. The mug was from my single mom days, and it is an actual miracle that it has survived ...
As I stepped onto the pier, the air seemed cleaner, my head felt clearer somehow, and I sat on what felt like the edge of the world, I just took a deep breath. Things in my little corner of the world were moving along smoothly. We are here in Chicago for a couple of weeks ...
First, it was my 50 Coats for a 50th Birthday campaign. Then it was several couples that needed help with giving kids a better life by opening their homes and giving them a family. Most recently it is a kids hockey team trying to make it to Nationals from Washington state to Florida. Giving ...
While I’m on the road, one of the largest things I miss almost as much as I miss my chickens is my kitchen. There is only so much take-out you can eat, you can only be so creative with the microwave in your room, and there is just so much pizza, even I can ...
I have been in New York for roughly five months, and it took me just about all of it to head out to Long Island to see my Aunt and Uncle and as I sat on the train watching Long Island fade into the background, I couldn’t help but think about my father. I have ...
My biological father died today. I have been searching around this room trying to locate my feelings as if they were stashed under this pile of books on my desk. The truth is I don’t know how to feel, which in turn keeps me searching. I have only seen Jimmy three or four times since ...
It’s been a while since we’ve had coffee and I thought we could use some catching up. Now that I’m working in New York City I thought we could go to one of the cozy coffee spots in the West Village. You would be amazed that I could find my way there on the subway ...
If you know me well, you know that I use to be a single mom. A struggling single mom from the time my kids were three and four until they were about 13 and 14. Because fish sticks were cheaper in bulk, we ate a lot of them. Because Cheerios were also cheaper in ...
It was 10:45 am on Inauguration Eve, I was sitting on my couch all alone in Nashville, the confirmation hearings were playing in the background, and I looked up to see an airplane flying in the sky on the upper right-hand corner of my tv. He was headed to Washington, in a plane that ...
Courage and fear. Two words that go hand in hand and elicit the exact same response from me. My heart starts to race, I break out into a cold sweat, I have trouble breathing, and I can’t look people directly in the eye. That’s how I felt when I told the closest people to me ...
I heard a quote once from an older lady who was talking about how she wanted people to remember her when she was gone. She said this…She came, she cared, she left. I thought to myself that’s how I want people to remember me and it got me thinking about 2016, what kind of impact ...
I woke up this morning and checked Facebook like I do every morning. I had a newsfeed filled with Christmas trees, talk of grocery shopping for the big dinner, Latkes recipes and parents sitting on couches with little children in front of their Christmas trees drinking hot chocolate waiting on the big guy. Families are ...
So this February I turn 50. Part of me is really surprised that I’m fifty because in my head I feel about 30. But some mornings when I wake up and crawl out of bed, I’m shocked that I’m only 50, my body feels 100 with its aches and pains, and God forbid I have ...
When you come from a big family, there are bound to be fights. Aside from the usual “that’s mine” or “I didn’t say you could borrow that,” my siblings and I didn’t fight much growing up. We don’t even fight much now that we are adults, but when there is a large fight, it usually ...
As I sat in a Starbucks in Brooklyn, NY, I looked around. It was pouring outside, and it seems people have chosen to camp out there. The amount of people in that little Starbucks was overwhelming. There were people from different countries, there were tourists with their maps, there was what seemed to be very ...
Sometimes you sit on a plane unaware that people notice you. Then you get on a plane again, and that person recognizes you and starts talking. I’m not usually a person who talks people on a plane, but today I did briefly. When you talk to strangers, you realize you aren’t alone in this world. ...
October 10 was the day that had my three other siblings and me scrambling for airline tickets. It was the date of my baby sister’s double mastectomy, and we were not going to let her go at it without her loud siblings. It would be the first time we would all be in the same ...
I am brave damn it! After all, I have two bracelets that say I am, I have people tell me I am all the time, I have kids who believe me to be brave, but the morning I had to climb onto the shuttle bus I wasn’t so sure that was the case. However, I climbed ...
As I sat in the airport waiting for my connecting flight, I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. Mexico is my final destination with my baby sister. I took a deep breath because that’s what they tell you to do to relax. I was sitting right next to a pizza place, and all ...
A few months ago I finally broke down and told my mother I didn’t believe in God. Her, almost predictable answer was, “Yes you do Gina.” But I don’t, I’m not sure I even believe in the power of prayer. Here’s why. Yesterday my baby sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. Last week my mother ...
As I sat on the balcony of my apartment looking at the downtown skyline and the sunrise, I realized it had been almost two years to the day when I closed the doors to my little bakery. In those days that I owned the bakery, I was up hours before the sun even peeked its ...
I woke up this morning all alone in the hotel, and I realized I was living a life most people would envy. I was at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut because my husband went back to work touring. Because I have grown kids, I can pick up at a moments notice and follow him to any ...
If you read my blog or if you know me, you know I have major body image issues. I’ve never been confident with my body and never believed people when they would tell me I was pretty. I have never been comfortable with just me. Almost every day my husband would tell me that I ...
Tomorrow I will climb in a rental car with my daughter and her boyfriend, my son and his wife and we will drive to the ocean. This will be the first vacation I’ve taken with the kids since they were little. This will be the first vacation I have ever taken to the ocean since ...
This morning I woke up feeling 100 years old, every bone was creaking and hurt, for no real reason. I have noticed that when you are almost 50, it’s harder just to jump right out of bed without something hurting. As waddled my way to the French press to make some coffee to jump start ...
