the Mother Runner

Why must something be either good or bad? Why can’t it just be? Why don’t I just wait and see? What do I fear? What do I really fear? Danger? Failure? Disappointment? Success? Do I give my family all of my burnt cookies? Do I let my children know they are wanted? Every day? What [...]

Some weeks are great for scraping things down to the bare bones of life to see what’s there. It turns out we don’t need much sleep. We don’t need to go grocery shopping. In fact, we don’t need to go anywhere or do anything. Because some weeks you just can’t handle anything extra or anything fun. [...]

What do you do on a Friday afternoon when you’ve been housebound for days, when one of your kids keeps smearing her own snot all over her face and waking up from naps after 20 minutes? When another of your kids is taking his second nap of the day? When the third kid is fixated [...]

Two years ago I was running through the park with the boys on a cold, wet late-winter day. I was just about to the hill when an old man stopped me to show me the snowdrops blooming on the side of the road. They were the first signs of spring, he said. I ran on, [...]

Micah and I were catching up on “Modern Family” on Friday night. It was the episode where Claire and Cam want to buy a house to flip and Claire is complaining to Cam about how she wants to get a job so she can contribute just a little to their family finances and they can [...]

So many ideas that never panned out. So many plans that didn’t get fulfilled. So many false starts and stifled projects. So many days that ended too soon. So many dreams that are still . . . dreams. Take heart: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett via Maria Popova

Last week we got out the atlas. We pointed at countries and states as we talked with the boys: “Uncle Will went to Argentina. Way down at the bottom. He lived here, on Tierra del Fuego. There are penguins there. Aunt Summer served in Argentina, too.” “Uncle Jon went to Japan. He was there the [...]

“Heiselts figure things out.” It’s becoming a family motto. If we don’t know how to do something, we figure it out. If I don’t know how to cook something, I read cookbooks until I do. If Micah doesn’t know how he’s going to build something, he studies and plans and thinks until he does. We’ve [...]

We’re ditching the kids today. Going to see Les Mis. Eating at some fancy pants restaurant. Picking out something new to wear. Treating ourselves to something cold and sweet at Jeni’s or Graeter’s. Because it’s been 8 years since we got married and that’s worth some serious indulgence.

Some of the highlights from our annual trip to see the Christmas window displays in Manhattan: Watching Manchild try to dance along with the marionettes at Macy’s. The best $1 pizza I’ve ever had. It definitely held it’s own against the $2 variety, and then some. (99 Cent Fresh on 5th between 332nd and 33rd, [...]