Several months ago, I had the idea that I wanted to adapt some mindfulness and meditation practices into something that I could start teaching my two-year old, Baker. I quickly realized that I had nothing to teach her about mindfulness– she was the one teaching me about being present and aware every day. Young children…
Today I encountered a woman screaming at her children because she wanted to take a photo of them smiling in front of a lake. Her kids were grinning at each other, at passers by, up at the cloudless sky, across the gleaming water– they were smiling at everything except for their mom. In fact, they…
I wrote a poem. It’s geared towards elementary school-aged children…the kids who are going back to school virtually, or doing a hybrid model. That is…until the schools get shut down again and everybody is virtual. It’s hard on parents. It’s hard on teachers. It’s hard on the kids. It’s just hard. Feel free to print…
I’ve cried at work before. There was that one time at the Dolphin Research Center that I was walking out of the fish house and slipped on the glassy, wet sidewalk. I fell directly onto my knee and when I finally got the courage to look at the damage, I discovered that my kneecap had dislocated.…
A trending news story right now is a tragic one, as most seem to be these days. In Cincinnati, a 4-year old boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at the zoo, and after being dragged around by the 400-pound gorilla for 10 minutes, the zoo made the decision to shoot and kill him. The gorilla, not…
Throughout elementary and high school, I struggled with bullies. Most of the time they were not physical bullies. Sometimes they were. But mostly they were of the mental and emotional sort– my least favorite kind of bully. If you think I suck, just hit me. Give me an Indian burn or a titty twister. Pull…
There is a hashtag trending right now that our nation’s finest middle and high school students are utilizing to show the world how deprived and unfortunate they are. #ThanksMichelleObama Because of the First Lady’s efforts to reform school lunches and battle childhood obesity, public schools have altered their serving sizes and menus. Apparently, public school lunches have gone…
Last year, I created “Nice List” certificates and letters from Santa to send to a few kids I know. Pretty soon, I had friends of friends and complete strangers asking me for letters! Their kids were LOVING them. I decided to make it into a mini business this year based on last year’s feedback! If…
Most kids go through an imaginary friend stage. Some adults go through it too, but I think we refer to that as Schizophrenia. When we were kids, my sister had a set of imaginary friends who would only come out to play when the toilet was being flushed. Bizarre, yes, but it seemed harmless enough.…
As my husband and I approach our seventh year together and our second wedding anniversary, we are fielding more and more “when will the babies come?” questions from friends and family. They have led to a few late night, not-so-serious baby discussions between us, but in all honesty, we are still really enjoying living child-free.…
The Other Courtney 