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A Full Body Smile
Last November, while visiting Spain, I had a sudden and very inconvenient thought: Oh my god, Maggie. Now you’re going to move here. Nothing had been decided yet. Zero plans were in motion. I hadn’t even said this wish out loud to Chris. But the feeling that it was an inevitability was so clear it almost made me laugh. Have you ever had the sensation that your body knows something before your mind agrees? Over the past…
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Through me, not from me: letting my children go and grow
I have felt my heart burst many times. One of the first was when Colin crawled for the first time. He crawled and I felt so excited for him, then a sudden overwhelming surge of doom: he was crawling away from me. The thought took my breath away. I cannot protect him always- but why would I want to stop him from experiencing all that he can? That was years ago, but I just felt a similar…
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The Stuff of early motherhood.. and what we’re packing
Many folks are asking, “Wait, what will you do with all your stuff?” The George Carlin set comes to mind, about how we are managed by our stuff. When Marie Kondo’s minimalist book came out in 2011, I devoured it and thought it was an incredibly effective way to sort through materials. At the time, I mostly applied it to my closet. I was a newlywed and we lived in a small apartment, so there wasn’t too…
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The Homeschooling Matryoshka Doll
When I think about packing, I realize that I am not only leaving behind furniture, clothes, and decorations. I’m going to leave behind my identity as a homeschooling mom. This is no small identity to wave goodbye to. I began when my eldest was a little kindergartener during the 2020 pandemic, when he tried to do online schooling. My preschool closed, and I chose a path my heart had secretly been dying to try. I loved taking…
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So… we’re moving to Spain!
We are?! We are. Never in a million years would I have thought I would be making this move at the age of 39. Long, long ago, I had some dreams of traveling the world and teaching in different countries. When we were first married, Chris considered a job in Switzerland, but we ended up in San Francisco. That was a lovely little adventure for just the two of us. But once we started our family, we…
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All of my moves…
As we prepare for our largest move yet across an ocean, I’ve been reflecting on the places and moves that have shaped me so far. The very first one was leaving our townhouse in Annandale, VA to a new neighborhood only about 2 miles away. I was in second grade, and although I don’t specifically remember the feelings I had at the time, I DO remember writing the notes. I left several ominous notes for the future…
formerly in the city, in the suburbs, by the lake, and by the mountains
Maggie by the Mediterranean 