Arizona Daily Sun · Flagstaff, AZ
The Column Life
Six years of weekly personal essays — on family, seasons, milestones, and the glorious chaos of raising five kids in a mountain town.
Before the food features and the instructional design, there was the column. Every week for six years, Family Matters ran in the Arizona Daily Sun — a humor column about life as a Flagstaff mother of five, written from the inside of the beautiful, exhausting, pencil-stealing mess of it all. No thesis, no angle. Just the truth about the Tuesday, rendered in a way that made people write in to say me too.
Featured Columns
A selection from the archive · Arizona Daily Sun
September 15, 2003
Mom's Attempt at Home Improvement Goes Awry
"One night I lay awake in the wee hours, thinking of my floor, and I just couldn't take it anymore." What follows is a ten-day odyssey involving muriatic acid, a wire brush, toxic fumes, and the immortal question: how difficult could it be?
October 10, 2003
Mom's Requirement for Family Harmony: Chocolate
"I've been known to fish chocolates out of the garbage." A full confession — and a love letter to the one thing that makes motherhood survivable. "My 4-year-old will occasionally smell my breath and say, 'Mom, have you been eating chocolate again?' Then she'll run to the kitchen to see if the chocolate chip bag is on the counter."
April 10, 2005
Forty, Schmorty. What's the Big Deal?
"Alright, I'm just going to lay it all out there, right from the get-go. (Drum roll, please.) I turned 40 yesterday. I know this isn't supposed to mean anything. It's just a number, right? I always expected I'd be mature, stable and subtly but wisely pensive about this little milestone. Well, I was right. I'm handling the situation beautifully."
October 14, 2007
The Yin and Yang of Fall
"I adore fall, always have. I love the crisp air in my nostrils, deep blue of the sky, radiant leaves, advent of the school year (yay!), and return of college football. You might say autumn is my favorite season. However, as with any transition, certain (shall I say undesirable) traits come along for the ride."
December 20, 2008
The Week Before Christmas
A parody of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, set squarely in Flagstaff. "'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through Flag town / Not a student was studying, the schools were shut down... Then out in the yard there arose such a clatter, / Mom sprang from her chocolate to see what was the matter."
August 9, 2009
Back to School Already?
"Usually my back-to-school columns go something like this. I wax poetic about the juxtaposition of elation and melancholy I feel. I'm so thrilled the summer of boredom and bickering are over, yet I feel sad that these kids just keep growing, darn them." This time, though, she's also heading back to school herself — as a student teacher.