Hellobee

After my dad died, I thought I understood grieving. Then 15 months after my dad passed, my mom was murdered. It’s been two years now, and I can honestly say that the grieving process has barely started. The hardest part was the unknown: who did this?? We started making lists but then the coroner told […]

Since we moved to the Philippines, we’ve been doing things differently with our nine-year-old son Charlie. We’ve been homeschooling him, and giving him a lot more free play than we used to. And now that our costs are so much lower, we’ve also made some changes in our life choices so that one of us […]

PART 1: MY MOM’S CONDITIONAL LOVE Growing up, I would do anything to make my mom happy. Her love was the sun around which my world revolved, and for as long as I can remember, I was in her orbit. When she was happy, her love radiated off of her, and I would bask in […]

It’s been 4 months since my mom died. It’s been a shock, because she was literally the healthiest person that I’ve ever known. Even though she was 73, she could do anything. She gardened with a machete, spoke 5 languages fluently and had just started driving a motorcycle! She was the strongest person I have […]

Earlier this year, we were wrestling with a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation with our son. Sometimes he would be the sweetest, most loving child ever, and other times he would turn into someone we just didn’t recognize: angry, defiant and sometimes even violent. We focused on love languages and upped the snuggles, and […]

Charlie and Olive have been getting closer lately, and I often wonder: is sibling closeness a matter of nature or nurture? Charlie’s kindergarten graduation day. He was so proud of Olive and introduced her to everyone as his little sister. I’ve noticed that when things are going well, parents tend to take credit (“it’s my […]

Life in our family has radically changed for us since we changed how we parent Charlie a few months ago. We used to really struggle with my son’s listening (and by listening, I mean, not listening). But after we started adding more snuggles to our routine, we’ve seen an enormous change in his behavior. He […]