family

November 5, 2025

Italy 2025!

Thanks to my very generous in-laws, our family took a trip to Italy this summer. It was my first time overseas since 1988, when I went to France with the French Club at my high school, so it’s been a minute since I’ve seen Europe! The trip was a 14-day, twelve city extravaganza called “Italy’s Continue reading

family, Life, Likes, Travel

amalfi, amalfi-coast, assisi, capri, cinque terre, europe, european vacation, family, family time, family vacation, Italy, italy photos, italy tour, positano, summer, summer vacation, tourism, travel, vacation, venice, verona
August 20, 2019

Publishing, Rejections, and Writing is Weird

Being a writer is a weird thing. Some days, weeks, months, you seem to have it all together and everything is flowing. Words, marketing, tweets, posts. Other times, you open the laptop and stare at it until your head starts to bob because you’re falling asleep. When things are going great, whoopee! Those are the Continue reading

Blogging, Books, family, inspiration, Life, Likes, Love, Writing

agents, amwriting, author life, blogging, fiction, maple summer wallace, publishing, rejection, women’s fiction, writer, writing, writing life
November 1, 2015

Juggling November

Two years ago, I wrote a blog post on Halloween night discussing whether I should take part in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. I did do NaNo that year and “won,” meaning I wrote 50,000 words in the month of November. That first draft sucked. But for the next year and a half I worked Continue reading

Books, family, inspiration, Life, Love, Parenting, Working, Writing

author, autumn, BookFish Books, fall, inspiration, Limitless Publishing, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, new jersey, November, publishing, trees, working, working mother, writing
September 17, 2015

Back to the Blog- Summer Recap

A long, shrill, continuous beep . . . a flatline . . . Get the cart! Plug in the paddles! Rubs paddles together and places them on WOAW’s metaphorical chest . . . All clear! Jess yells, as she shocks her blog alive. A quick blip . . . then another . . . LIFE! Continue reading

Blogging, family, inspiration, Life, Parenting, Travel, Writing

blogging, camp, empire state building, friends, kids, NYC, parenting, science projects, summer, writing
May 9, 2015

Mother’s Day Stuff

Two man-made lakes, landscaped with beautiful trees and flowers, sit in the middle of our development. As you can imagine, the mile-long paved pathway around the lakes is a magnet for dog walkers, joggers, bikers, strollers. It’s lovely to have the lakes in our neighborhood and to me, they are the shining point of our Continue reading

family, Life, Love, Parenting

children, family, kids, Mother’s Day, parenting, relaxing
March 3, 2015

On Time and More of It

For those of you who don’t know, I was recently “restructured” out of a job. Remember my lovely job in downtown Trenton? (I posted about Trenton here and here). Well, it is no more. On one hand, this is not terrible. I wasn’t thrilled with the job anyway and financially and emotionally, it made sense Continue reading

family, Kiri Dog, Life, Parenting, Working

children, cooking, Dogs, family, kick ass bread, kiri, nail polish, not working, parenting, pets, time, time management, unemployment, working
January 29, 2015

AHH, the House is on Fire! Or, L’Eggo my Eggo!

From the Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab? My MacBook (wouldn’t want it to melt with my masterpieces living inside). My cell phone (to call 911 and so kids can watch Netflix at shelter/hotel). Our coats (it’s friggin Continue reading

family, Kiri Dog, Life, Parenting

adventures, breakfast, breakfast food, daily prompt, Eggos, fires, flames, parenting, the daily post, toaster ovens, waffles
January 27, 2015

Snow Day Time Lapse

Time it takes to find appropriate clothing for two boys on blizzard days: 45 minutes. Amount of time spent putting said clothes on boys: 15 minutes. Size of snowsuit that you are cramming your nine-year-old into: 6/7. Time it takes for little one to decide he has to pee after said clothes are in place: Continue reading

family, Life, Parenting

blizzard of 2015, children, family, kids, outerwear, parenting, snow, snow days, winter
January 22, 2015

My Littlest Artist

My nine-year-old, lovingly referred to as “M.” on this blog, recently took a liking to art. The other day, we sat together with a pile of paper and he drew for awhile, then I gave him suggestions and he drew some more. Here are some of his pictures: This one looks like an angry dude Continue reading

Autism, family, inspiration, Kiri Dog, Life, Likes, Love, Parenting

art, autism, kids art, Kiri Dog, parenting
January 19, 2015

Daily Prompt: Re-springing Your Step

Today’s Daily Prompt from The Daily Post reads: Tell us about the last experience you had that left you feeling fresh, energized, and rejuvenated. What was it that had such a positive effect on you? I changed out a light switch today! I realize that’s not exactly rocket surgery or brain science. It’s nowhere near Continue reading

family, inspiration, Life

Bob the Builder, daily prompt, home improvements, light switch, light switches, the daily post, YouTube