• A heartbroken woman sitting in the house embracing her.
    Essays,  General Thoughts

    Just get over it

    It’s funny. I find myself saying “Get over it” to my kids sometimes when they’re whining about one thing or another—usually something insignificant in the grand scheme of life like someone eating the last brownie. If only the phrase worked for more significant things. Getting over it would benefit me in so many ways. One year ago today I was unemployed for the first time in my adult life. I was scared, depressed, and hurt over the whole situation. I tried to put on a brave face for my family, but I know they could see through it. About two weeks after that first day of unemployment, I accepted an…

  • Woman apologizing
    Essays,  General Thoughts

    Apologies and hurt feelings

    If you’re reading this post, you’re a human being who’s been hurt before. It’s part of life. Also, it’s guaranteed that you’ve hurt someone else, whether intentionally or not. The worst part of hurting someone is when you do so unintentionally…and they won’t or can’t accept your sincere apology for the miscommunication. That happened to me recently. I lost some people I cared about because I hurt them with my blog post about my unexpected employment changes. It was never my intention to hurt anyone. I was and still am extremely hurt by the whole situation that resulted in my job loss, so I tried to write only facts without…

  • Essays,  General Thoughts

    A New Family Member: An official introduction

    As many of you know, we lost Buddy, a dear four-legged and furry member of our family back in September 2020. By December, we were feeling the pull to adopt another dog. After three months of mourning had passed, I wouldn’t say we were healed; we were just open to expanding our hearts again. After some searching and conversations with our kids, Jonathan and I reached out to Needy Paws Animal Shelter in Clarksville, Arkansas. It was there we became interested in a young adult Kelpie mix named Roscoe, whom we adopted on December 30. I mentioned him in my first post of 2021, but here’s some more information about…