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We live in a world that honors high achievement. I was raised in a family culture that expected excellence in school, in sports and in my career. There is nothing wrong with working hard to achieve goals. However, if this intense goal-oriented life is accompanied by self-doubt and feelings of not being good enough, then
For the past four months, I have been working on the second draft of the book I am writing about raising Nick. I have such compassion for the young mother that I was. I am astounded at the things that I have been able to do over the years. I am very grateful that I
A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Another friend’s husband has just lost his job. Arden and I have been helping Nick learn to deal with the side affects of increasing his seizure medicine to avoid seizure clusters. These are hard things. Each of these situations bring increased stress and heightened emotions.
Most of the time, Nick is very sweet and compliant. However, he is human and there are times his behavior is not correct and I get frustrated at him. Even angry. As soon as he notices that I am upset, he immediately apologizes. “I sorry, mom,” he says, “I sorry, ok?” This is quickly followed
25 years ago we purchased our log home in Carnation from our friends Allen and Leonie Hunt. They are visiting with us this weekend. We remarked how both families have been blessed by our friendship. When we bought their house, we inherited their friends too. That has been a great blessing to us. Allen and
Yesterday Arden and I witnessed another Nick miracle. I took a picture. Over the weekend I had been playing Bananagrams with friends. It is a game where lettered tiles are used to spell words. Nick was struggling to pick up the tiles. We searched the internet and discovered that there is a similar game with
Today I took Nick to his day program. He calls it school. The name really is Bridge of Promise and the program is based here in Carnation, WA. Nick loves it. They go on field trips and do group activities in the school room. There are students, teachers and volunteers involved in the program. This morning,
https://youtu.be/Q5PPJUDcpDg is the YouTube address for the video of my presentation on 7 July 2017 during the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community and Involvement (MIRCI) conference at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at Galway University, Ireland. The presentation is titled “The Unexpected Mothering Story” and is about 18 minutes long. A few
I am in Galway, alone. Oh, I am with friends. However, I am not with Nick. He and Arden are up in Donegal and I will join them on Monday. This weekend I am presenting at a conference on Mothering at Galway University. My talk is entitled, “The Unexpected Mothering Story. When the story doesn’t
Announcing that I have finished a book with the working title of “The Fairy Fort.” I am currently pitching it to publishers. Keep checking back to watch the progress of my newest novel.
Here is a quick glimpse of the story.
Sarah Doherty is an 18-year-old living in rural Ireland at the tail end of the Great War. Plagued by severe epilepsy, she is protected by her parents and lives a sheltered, secluded, lonely life. The Fae, local Irish fairies, interfere with her life. She falls forward a century in time through the local fairy fort of standing stones. She had a seizure in 1918 and woke up in 2020. The 21st century world includes life-saving prescriptions, physical comforts and the independence and freedom she seeks. The locals are welcoming and Andy Mclaughlin, a handsome young historian, is intriguing. She doesn’t want to return home.
Then a letter arrives from Boston divulging the story of Sarah and Andy’s lives that are deeply entwined in the previous century. They are not yet in love but as they seek to verify the letter through online resources, they feel a growing obligation to their unborn family and to each other. What would happen to their posterity living in Boston if they don’t return to 1918? Even if they do make it back, her parents can never know what happened to her or that would change everything.
This Young Adult time-travel romance explores the question: Do we have the freedom to make choices or is free will an elaborate illusion?
This is my third book. I love reading time travel romances. I am an advocate for epilepsy awareness because my 43-year-old son has intractable epilepsy. As a genealogist specializing in Irish research, I live part of the year in the village where the story is based. I wrote the book to help young adults understand that difficult situations can change your life. Sometimes miraculously.
