Full disclosure: I never had a real plan of how I was going to talk about race with my kids. It wasn’t intentional; I just got so wrapped up in all of the other details – teaching them how to use the toilet and put on socks and say please and thank you – that I realized I had never even thought of how to couch the subject. It wasn’t until last summer, when the BLM protests reached a fever pitch, that I realized I was doing them a massive disservice. I grew up in a Black neighborhood, so my parents never quite had to broach the topic the same way, but Alex and Nathan live in a diverse communit ..read more

One of the biggest things I have to remind myself as a parent is to be gracious with myself. Just like my boys who aren’t even four years old yet, and are still learning how to function as little humans, I’m young in motherhood. It was less than four years ago that I was childless and, honestly, completely clueless. I’ve been many things longer than I’ve been a mother. A teacher. A wife. And I learn more each year of teaching, each year of marriage, each year of life. So I constantly remind myself: It’s okay not to know everything when it comes to parenting. Do you ever find yourself plagued ..read more

One of the blog posts people have asked me to write in the past has always been potty training tips. I never did one because…I didn’t have any! It was so hard for me to be consistent and thorough with potty training. I tried many times, only to get frustrated that it didn’t happen instantly or be too tired at the end of a long day to put in anymore energy toward it. Their teachers would tell me they did okay at school, but it wasn’t translating to home. Finally, right after their third birthday in March, we went all in. We were in quarantine, and with school and work closed, nowhere to be, an ..read more

I was feeling a little apprehensive to make this post, but I’ve had a few conversations with friends about this shared experience. I talked to one recently who told me that my transparency with my own self-image could actually help many people. So here goes: I am a certified personal trainer, group exercise instructor, self-proclaimed nutrition and fitness freak. I teach multiple workout classes a week and usually track my meals and stick to my macros to the T. But I’m not perfect, and guess what happened to me during quarantine? Yup. I gained weight. How much, I’m not sure; I try not to weig ..read more

I hope you guys aren’t burnt out of race-related content yet, because right now, it’s all my heart is telling me to create. God has given me this platform for a reason, and while I’m no million-dollar blogger, I just wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t use this space to spread knowledge on racism and race-relations in this country. This period of civil unrest in America has me in deep reflection on my life as a Black person and the lives that my sons will experience as they grow. And there is so, so much to consider. mi·cro·ag·gres·sion /ˌmīkrōəˈɡreSHən/ noun a statement, action, or incide ..read more

For a while I put off making a post like this. I thought I didn’t have anything new to contribute to the conversation. But I FaceTimed my mom yesterday, just like I do everyday, and this call was different. We cried together. We spoke of the world in which the two beautiful little black boys sliding into a kiddy pool at that very moment are growing up. “You have to use your voice,” she said. “Use whatever you have.” So here I am, trying to piece some words together that make sense. Because I do have something new to contribute. Myself. My family. My heart. We muse all the time about what the ..read more

One question I get a lot from new people is “How did you react when you found out you were having twins?” It was the absolute last thing I expected. I tell this story all the time, so I thought it would be fun to set the scene and tell it on here. It’s a day I’ll certainly never forget and a story I’m sure I’ll tell for the rest of my life. I found out I was pregnant at five weeks. James and I had been trying to conceive, so I hadn’t missed my period yet or felt any symptoms, but I had been testing regularly. I got a positive home test and went to the doctor the next day to get it confirmed ..read more

I’m a teacher. An elementary school, special education teacher. So I’m used to giving unpleasant news to parents. I’m used to sending messages letting them know their child is “off-task” or “being defiant.” I’ve had to tell parents of young children – like, under 10 – that their child just used every curse word under the sun because I told them they couldn’t play with slime. I’ve been on the delivering end of this kind of information for years now, and honestly, it’s such a big part of my job that I’d become a little numb to it. I had strategies that I used to soften the blow, like always pre ..read more

This year, I decided to start my year off by doing a mirror fast. In case you’ve never heard of one, a mirror fast is when you cover all of the mirrors in your home and go about your life without looking at yourself. You can change the specifics to fit your life. Obviously, I still can look in the rearview mirror when I’m driving, and the mirrors at the gym are hard to avoid (especially when I’m teaching a group exercise class), but my goal is to look no more than is absolutely necessary. I can’t look in a mirror bigger than my rearview intentionally, and I can’t stop and look at myself in re ..read more

It’s not even Thanksgiving and I’ve already finished my Christmas shopping for Alex and Nathan! I didn’t get them a ton of things, because I know they’re also going to get gifts from friends and family, but I did get them a few things I know they’ll love – and I saved a LOT of money. Last year, I hadn’t gone back to work yet and was in school full-time, so we didn’t have a lot of Christmas money. Since I’m teaching again, we’ve got more income, but we’re still living frugally and I wanted to be very aware of how much we were spending at Christmas. Here’s what I got them and how much I saved ..read more