The summer is flying by. It seems like yesterday we were kicking off summer with our annual neighborhood Memorial Day party, and now the countdown to the start of school is beginning. With the kids summer swim season nearly over (All-Stars this weekend!), I’m looking forward to our family vacation coming up next month as we’re heading to Acadia National Park in Maine with my in-laws and sister-in-law for the first time. One thing I’ll be sure to pack are my watercolors. If we have any downtime, I’ll pick up my paint brushes to get lost in the colors and composition. I’m sure inspiration will ..read more

2022 was a year that tested me to my core. Week-long bouts of mania - approximately five, but I wasn’t tracking them accurately - would lead to the inevitable crash into the depths of depression where I’d languish for weeks, sometimes months. Depression whispered nasty sentiments to me throughout the day, causing me to forget what I loved about life. Anxiety ripped into me daily causing me to worry about anything and everything, and on top of that my confidence sank. Over the course of the past year I also had several hypomanic episodes, the milder form of mania, which felt good and were harml ..read more

blog here. I’ll write more later. Off to Vegas tomorrow ..read more

{continued from my Mental Health Mindset Key #1 post…} I was extremely fortunate to be working through my diagnosis with my incredibly loving and supportive husband and my parents who were there to listen to me talk through tears every day when I’d call them in Florida from Virginia. Months of clinical depression kept passing, with only psychiatrist and therapist appointments breaking up the monotony of the day-to-day. My psychiatrist added an anti-depressant to my anti-psychotic medication to try to lift me out of the depression. Only it had a different effect - a very scary side effect of su ..read more

In an effort to return to writing and blogging, I found this post in my drafts from the summer of 2020 and decided it’s time to follow through with publishing the keys to my Mental Health Mindset in hopes that they can help someone out there. The first key to building a Mental Health Mindset is to obtain a proper diagnosis. Sounds simple enough, right? I wish it were that easy. On average, it takes a person ten years to receive the proper diagnosis for their mental health condition. TEN years. Can you imagine it taking your doctor ten years to properly diagnose your cancer? Me either. What is ..read more

This project has been in the works for over a year now and I’m thrilled to announce that it’s finally come to fruition. Owen has published his first book - Mom’s Mental Illness - on Amazon and it’s now available for purchase! We hired a professional illustrator to bring his words to life and couldn’t be more proud of how it came out. I’ve always been open with my kids about the fact that I live with bipolar disorder. It wasn’t until they saw it first hand did they really grasp what it meant. In the fall of 2017, when Owen was 9 and Vivian was 7, they witnessed me experiencing the beginning of ..read more

Over the course of the past year I’ve struggled deeply with my bipolar disorder. After living with it for nearly seventeen years you’d think I’d finally gotten to the point of being able to manage it effectively. But going through major life changes causes high stress and high stress brings on episodes. I’m thankful to have an incredible support system around me and access to quality mental healthcare which has helped me navigate these challenging times. I stepped down as Executive Director of This Is My Brave in order to focus on writing a memoir. I had big goals of having it half completed b ..read more

Photo Credit: Alicia Bruce I’ve always been the type of person who wanted to make the invisible visible. It’s just in my nature. Engrained in my being. A part of who I am. I am someone who wants to share where I’ve been so that others can learn and grow, the same way I desperately want to hear what others have gleaned from their life experiences. I crave this deep, intimate knowledge of people. When I open up to someone and they lean in and open up in response, I know I’ve found my people. Small talk makes my skin crawl. When I meet someone for the first time though, small talk is inevitable ..read more

Originally written SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015 It's been so long, I almost forgot how to log in to my original mommy blog. That space where I first learned how to post, where I started my online writing practice. The early photos I took of my babies are all archived there, not in a traditional baby book. I remember how sad I was when I made the decision to stop posting regularly here. Five years, four months of my life is documented on my first blog. My blogging training wheels. When Vivian turned eight months old, I made a decision to tell my story. From the beginning I wanted to write openly, wit ..read more

I turned 42 this past week and it was such a magical birthday. Yes, even despite the fact that COVID is still making this year suck as much as last year. Maybe my expectations were lower? Or maybe I was able to focus on all the good things in my life instead of thinking of all the things that I’m missing right now. (I’m becoming less of a pessimist in my old age.) My birthday eve was sweetened by a visit from my BFF Erica stopping by for a quick afternoon walk while her girls were at their dance class. She brought a gift from my crew - my oldest friends from childhood went in together on a bot ..read more