When we first moved to Dallas, we made some colorful friends who were actors at Scarborough Renaissance Festival- King Henry and a Contessa, to be exact. During October, the Scarborough Fair grounds become a spooky maze of haunted houses, Scary-oke, expensive food vendors, and a throng of tweens looking to snuggle up to their crush …
Tuesday, 7/11/2023, Nashville Airport 2:08 pm I wasn’t anxious about this until we popped open the back of my sister’s van. It’s not the actual flying that concerns me. The Baby is almost chronically un-anxious, as in, he is not anxious even when he probably should be, like when he tries to drown himself by …
January 23, 2023 Dear Mr. Sedaris, My son, {The Baby}, came screeching into the world via an emergency c-section at 26 weeks- a two-pound potato whose vital organs needed lots of assistance to keep him alive. I met him for the first time four months later, when his birthmother invited me to visit the Neonatal …
I remember talking about atheism and agnosticism in my world religions class in high school. In my little conservative corner of West Texas, we didn’t spend much time talking about the godless heathens, but I remember the description of Clockmaker god, who designed the world, perfectly calibrated all of it’s gears and dials, and then …
Let me preface the beginning of this series with a few things: I’m gonna take weekends off for my “writing every day” goal in November. I can do this because I’m a grown ass woman and I want to. I want to explicitly acknowledge that I have AMAZING parents who did the best with what …
Last August, my little family met my parents in Estes Park. We have done this trip every couple of years since I was a kid. We stay in cabins and hike and explore and breathe in the fresh mountain air. COVID made things a little different, but we were just happy to escape Dallas for …
Well, today the Wise family said hello to a new bed and goodbye to two of The Baby’s teeth. A few months ago, we started the laborious process of getting a SleepSafe bed approved through The Baby’s insurance because his crib had become unsafe. He was able to stand up in it and when he …
The Baby turned five this week. It’s crazy. All of those five years tend to blur together. After all, time flies when you’re drowning in medical chaos (just kidding…kind of). On the night of his birthday, our dinner conversation centered around remembering all of his firsts- the first time he sat up, the first solid …
(You can listen to an audio version of this post here.) I went to David’s Bridal today to purchase a bridesmaid’s dress for a friend’s wedding next summer. She had a dress already picked out in the system so they pulled her profile up and I followed the very nice saleslady to the racks laden …
(I realize this is very lengthy so I have strategically placed pictures of smiling animals throughout the piece so that you can mark your place if you need to take a break and come back to it. At my sister’s suggestion, I’ve also made an audio version of this blog. You can download/stream it by …
I grew up in West Texas- land of wide-open spaces, sky high teen pregnancy rates, and a colorblind racial ideology that masks racism instead of confronting it. In colorblind ideology, it is impolite to talk about someone’s race. I remember hearing a story about a friend who was trying to tell her son which store …
I just got back from San Francisco. I went to (hides face) a Christian conference. I found myself hesitant to tell people that it was a Christian conference because of the connotations of that. My sense is that many Christian conferences are lame attempts at pep rallies for God, the adult version of church camp, …
“What was I thinking?” I thought as I stared forlornly into the mirror. I should have known better than to impulsively stop at the hair salon directly adjacent to the Tom Thumb, still clutching my bag of avocados. I was hoping for a cute haircut before I left on my 10th anniversary weekend trip. Instead, …
I was a mere 21 years old when I got married. My uncle officiated our wedding. Before the wedding, my then-fiancee, now-husband, Alex, and I drove down to Corpus to do some premarital counseling sessions and stay with my aunt and uncle. After one of these sessions, Alex and I got ready to leave and …
I went to a vigil in Balch Springs for Jordan Edwards last week. It was everything you would want a vigil to be- beautiful and sad and moving and comforting. Like most, I was horrified by Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice’s deaths. I have been deeply affected before by deaths caused by police brutality, but …
Hey little one- When I was growing up, this was a common occurrence in our house. The sound of my dad playing the guitar, singing old songs, is one that will stick with me forever. Sometimes my mom would join in with her sweet sing-song voice. Sometimes your aunt Leah and I would dance around. … Continue reading
In high school, I began to joke about getting a black eye. I would talk about what I would say about what happened, where I would go to show it off, etc. I became playfully obsessed. When I went skiing and fell neck-first on my ski pole, I secretly wished it had been my eye. … Continue reading
Well, I laid it all out on the table last week when I said that I was done with purchasing not-fairly-made things. Big commitment. One I’m kind of excited about. I thought I would kind of give myself an easy start- you know, like buying an American-made Slinky or an American flag. Nope. There were … Continue reading
I’ve only been skiing once. It was a family trip with my youth group and we went to Copper Mountain, Colorado. And I haven’t been skiing since. Now, you should already know that I am not a natural athlete (if you have any doubts, please check here and here.) But skiing is basically controlled falling … Continue reading
God: Hey there, sister. How you doin? Beth: Well, this hasn’t been the best day. I should have listened to Alex when he told me not to read the Kindle in the bathtub. They’re skinny but those things pack a serious punch… Am I dead? No, you’re not dead. Just temporarily knocked out for a … Continue reading
I’m mildly convinced that I have some sort of sensory processing disorder, since the feel of velvet makes me want to vomit, I would love to plunge my hands into a bucket of rice or small beads, and if Alex gently caresses my arm, I punch him in the kidney. The other day, I threw … Continue reading
Hi baby- Right after I told my parents we were adopting, your grandmother (we want her to be called “Flossie” but she’s not going for it) told me that it is hard to watch your kids go through hard stuff. Even though they’re excited for us, they knew that adoption is a hard journey. Oh … Continue reading
I went to a Natural Dye workshop today, which turned out to be one of the coolest things I’ve done in Dallas thus far. My friend Kara and I headed out this morning to Ponder, TX, which is a stone’s throw from Denton, the “Austin” of the DFW area. The workshop was at a cool … Continue reading
The other day, Alex wanted to go on up to our local library and get a card. So we hopped on the scooter and scooted on up to the local library. While he was getting his card, I meandered on over to my usual section- the Young Adult section. Just to give you a picture … Continue reading
Man, I needed the Church today. Most of you have probably experienced church but many of you might not have experienced The Church. I’m not talking about “get your butt in a pew on Sunday”, “let’s pretend like everyone’s perfect”, “let’s sit around and talk about how cute our clothes are” church. I’m talking about the Church- … Continue reading
welderbeth 