I started blogging because I needed some place to release a creative muse, and I was trying to avoid a late-night chocolate binge. I know Shout isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, or coffee, or wine. Hell, it’s certainly not everyone’s idea of a good, stiff drink. I’ve gone back and forth with myself to create [...]

My husband took this picture of our son last Saturday and I can’t help but smile every time I look at it.

I’m Wondering on Wednesday: When was the last time you felt this happy and free?

My 5-year-old son is a bit compulsive about certain things. When he was a toddler, he’d refuse to eat french fries unless he could first put them in a straight line across his plate. Before he could even walk or talk, he was much happier sorting Legos by size, shape and color than he was [...]

The other day I talked a little about how my longtime friend, Amy, and I have such different lifestyles that we probably make a nice little Yin and Yang social experiment to help our children learn that differences are actually OK and can enhance our lives. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, [...]

It was 14 years ago today that my husband and I met in a rather chance encounter. We’re still trying to figure out who got the better part of that April Fool’s joke. We met online, back before it was cool to do so, before people were actually looking for other people online, back when [...]

I wonder if our propensity for conformity feeds a culture of bullying. I don’t know anyone that thinks childhood bullying is acceptable, but I wonder if our adult choices in friendships provide a spotlight for homogeneous circles, and teaches our children that although it’s easy to discuss diversity, the practice of accepting differences is much [...]

We moved to our current neighborhood in 2007 for several reasons, the most important of which was the idea it will provide abundant opportunity for our son, Aaron, to develop relationships with other children. He has a serious case of Only Child Syndrome, and we enrolled him in preschool for similar reasons. (I swear we [...]

I’m sure you must be tired of talking about my funk. I am. So let’s talk about something else. This topic still makes me cry, but it’s self induced and avoidable. ONION.
I’ve despised onion since I realized I have taste buds. I don’t like the texture, the flavor, the smell, the anything. I delete [...]

We each hold our own truths—facts we know in our hearts to be so undeniably accurate we’re comfortable to share them with gusto and righteousness. We repeat our truths, write about them, scoff at those not as enlightened and shove seeds down the gullets of family and friends hoping to take root. We take our [...]

“Is everything OK?” She asked, “I haven’t seen you at the gym lately.”
“I’ve been terribly lazy,” I said. “Plus, I really need to start going earlier in the morning. If I wait to work out until after I drop Aaron at preschool, it’s 10:30 before I get back into my office, and I feel like [...]