Welcome. I’m here, and I’m glad you are, too. I’m Tricia Joy, lover of all things real: kindness, humor, story-telling, creativity, imperfection, God, honesty, cuss words, and a heck of a lot of and silliness.
All in Parenting
My kids were seated on either side of me, not because I like to split my attention equally among them but because their bickering required it.
I slashed through the cardboard with a serrated knife, because, like everything else in my life, my kitchen shears were misplaced.
Buried so deeply beneath life’s mountain of sippy cups and Legos and socks with no matches, I found myself doubting that what they said could be true…
Conversation 2.0, both the platonic and nonplatonic-oriented kind, is sometimes hard to make the leap to, especially in a world where the niceties of shallow small talk sometimes feel like the only space that is safe.
I don’t know about you, but for me the days went on for freaking ever this summer.
Your house and your calendar and your laundry all fall on you. And that can feel crushing when you hate house stuff, calendar stuff, and laundry stuff. Q: What to do? A: Get creative.
With all four kids home with me every mother loving day for the months of June-August, the summer is ripe with insight.
They always wanna share your creative stuff. This shouldn’t surprise us since the selfish little bastards by nature always think everything is about them. That Walgreens bag you’r…
A while back, I met an older gentleman at the library book drop off. He had hiked it over by foot from the neighboring retirement village. Fair warning: I’m not su…
I try really hard not to harp on happiness. “Happy” is so very American, something valued very highly in this country. It’s all at once perceived as a right – due to us – and a destination – absent until we earn it. The truth is that Happy, as a fe…
Here’s why “Do your best” bugs me: because “best” to me is like infinity on the number line. A brief math review: you could st…
The message this sends when we say it to our kids, I worry, is not just that they ought to stick with the things worth striving for – the grueling track work outs to become fas…
Sike. I say this every other hour (And let me continue to be real: Pretty much every numbered item here is about what I REACH towards, not necessarily precisely what I’m actually doing… it’s my blog an…
Those little make-your-own popsicle plastic handles should each have a tracking device. I was all pumped about our koolaid popsicles. EVERYBODY remembers the nos…
I am all done buying my kids shit. OVER. IT. Christmas, Valentine's Day, and now EASTER?? They're gonna start expecting presents for Every. Stinkin. Day. Off. School. Pa…
I won't bore you with the minutia of details surrounding the cable snafu we had back in the Fall. To sum up, it went something like this: Call to report internet is do…
Floodgates are real. I know this because we Arthur parents opened them. It was just a little crack at first. And now our home is fully flooded. By what? You might ask. I'll tell..
1. The library is not free (for people like me). There should be a sign on the front door reading, "WARNING: This establishment's services are free ONLY if you are responsible and organi…
Two weeks ago, I received a text from a fellow-mom sent to several parents from my son's soccer team, many of whom also happened to be neig…
Been thinking about the manner of speech "letting myself off the hook." I've used it a bunch recently as I dedicated the past two days to doing just that. I had a su…
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