Day to Day Graces

June 5, 2020

We can do better

Last week I had a post ready to send out on Friday. Then the case of George Floyd being killed by some Minneapolis police officers took the world by storm instead. So I was quiet, listening, learning, like many of the rest of us. The truth is, it is hard for a white woman like me to know what to say in such circumstances.  “I’m sorry” seems too small. “I understand” is tone deaf – I can’t understand what his mother, his daughter, his friends, or his community feels like because I don’t have the same experiences. So I said […]

Day to Day Graces family life 2 min read
May 22, 2020

Helping Mama

**This post was written pre-Covid days. I’m looking forward to visiting my parents again soon! Blinking, I open my eyes. What awakened me? After a few moments of consciousness, I recognize it. The smell of marinara on the stove, mixed with a little – cake? I have come to stay with my parents for a few days. It’s hard to step back into that role as daughter, even for a short time. I guess I can sympathize more with my college-age son now, at Christmas holidays! The aromas coming from the kitchen must have filtered into my subconscious, because I’ve […]

Day to Day Graces family life 2 min read
May 15, 2020

Ratty dandelion flowers to Fragrant white lilies

I’m feeling nostalgic these days for my little fellas – two Class of 2020 graduates this year brings it out in me. Missing the days of ratty dandelion flowers offered up in chubby fingers and afternoons of splashing in every single mud puddle… To my moms of tiny men, do you sometimes wonder who they will be as they grow? Do you wonder if they will ever quit burping (they don’t) or start picking their clothes up? (maybe). Here’s a quick roundup of all things almost-full-grown-male. Stinky clothes and shoes — sports uniform, band outfit, Sunday-best — always stinky! Axe/Old […]

Day to Day Graces family life 1 min read
May 8, 2020

Peanut butter crackers and TV dinners

We raced into the cold sterility and blinking-bright lights of the OR, bumping into the steel bedframe of the bed in our haste to deliver this baby as quick as possible. Soon the beep-beep of mom’s heartbeat on the anesthetist’s machine was countered by the low, slow bum-bum-bum on the ultrasound, sounds of a baby’s heart in distress. Our voices were quiet, but urgent. “FHT’s 80s, catheter in, prep done, Dr. Simon is on his way, right?” Hurry, hurry, hurry was the one constant running through our minds as the OR team quickly went about this business of preparing for […]

Day to Day Graces family life 4 min read
April 10, 2020

Ugly Cries and Hysterical Laughter

Good Good Friday morning, friends! I hope it is as beautiful where you are as where I am. I also hope you are able to get out – I know some places are stricter about the shelter-in-place rules than Texas is. Yesterday was an exhausting day for me. As parents, we like to keep it all together and carry on for our kids’ sake. Even if they are all teens and up! However, scientists and psychiatrists have long known that carrying around a lot of stress and excess emotion has consequences beyond our brains and into our bodies. Yet, when […]

Day to Day Graces family life 2 min read

Jennifer Goolsby