Just A Mom Family

A Bride’s Vow

At the altar, she mingled her bowl of salt with his, the only way they would be separated was if her grains and his could be separated, one by one. The small box they were poured into still sits in my closet, eleven years later, next to the small box that contains his ashes.

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"I don't like talking about these things, but people should know. They should know about them, so I will tell you"

I’m a widowed mom, not a single mom.

It’s not single moms vs widowed moms in “who has it worse off.” That’s not what I mean at all. No, it’s just different. That’s all. Different.

For the single mom who feels forgotten at church

                “There’s no place for me,” I pointed out to the church staff member who was manning the small group-sign-up table. I had walked down the long table of groups, desperate to find a place for a 28-year-old newly widowed mother of a newborn and twin toddlers. “Well, we have a widowed group over here,” he pointed to the 50+ table. I...

Girls are empowered, but what about our boys?

I turned the television off, my heart heavy, I just can’t anymore today…I just can’t, I just can’t see one more young man destroy the lives of others, but just because I can’t see it on the screen, I know it’s there. I go to wash the dishes and I can see our elementary school out the kitchen window. I can see...

Widowed: Dating won’t fix you (because you’re not broken)

It wasn’t even two weeks after my husband died leaving me with a newborn and twin two-year olds that the comments starting rolling in: “You’re so young, you’ll find another dad for your kids.” “You’ll find someone else,” someone even told me, “All you need is a one-night stand.” Now, four years later, I still hear advice and promptings encouraging me to...

The emotional pressures of parenting

We’ve all been in that pre-kid era where we’re sure we know what kind of parent we’ll be. Admit it, you’ve taken a note or two in your past when seeing a parent with his or her kid in the store and raised an eyebrow or two. I know I have. The parent I was going to be looked awesome on paper,...

So you wanna date a single mom? Consider this first.

After a lot of ‘hemming’ and ‘hawing’ (and three years of deleting profiles after a day or so) I finally embarked on the journey into the world of online dating where every man is a world-traveler, outdoorsman and cute dog owner, and (I’m assuming) every woman is the down-to-earth, no drama kind of girl. As a widowed parent (OK, fine, go ahead...

On National Widow’s Day I’m his widow, but I’m not a widow

Apparently, it’s National Widow’s Day. May 3. There’s a day for everything now, to sandwich widows between National Eat a Doughnut Day and Dress Your Dog up as a Cartoon Character Day (that has to be a day somewhere, right?) makes it rather trite, don’t you think? Who even knows it’s National Widow’s Day unless a meme told you anyway—unless you’re a widow (or...

Re-purposing Condolence cards

*may or may not contain affiliate links I recently finished The Minimalists’ 30-day challenge to get rid of things every day for 30 days. Since the passing of my late husband, I’ve been slowly doing this already, ( READ on my other site: His Stuff. My Treasure.) but there was a lot I just sort of shoved into a corner hoping maybe...