Abby Off the Record — The scoop on life, writing & raising kids

The View from the Other Side of the Pool House

April 26, 2013

Tucked away in a residential neighborhood in Baltimore, there is a gorgeous tulip garden that bursts into bloom each spring. It’s the kind of place that is astonishing in its beauty, all the more so because somehow it still has the feel of a secret garden, even though it’s very well-known in the area. It’s […]

Read the full article →

When You Don’t Follow the Crowd

April 22, 2013

When I was a freshman in college, I – like everybody else – asked around to find out what were the best classes and professors. I remember there was one course in particular that sounded really interesting to me, a comparative literature class studying the themes of the Grimm Brothers fairy tales. Word around campus […]

Read the full article →

Trying to Cope with Fear and Danger as a Parent

April 17, 2013

I can clearly remember the first night home from the hospital with my firstborn. While the baby was downstairs with his dad and grandparents, I was upstairs sobbing on the bed. It had just hit me that we lived in Baltimore, one of the murder capitals of the country, the setting for the violent crime […]

Read the full article →

Approaching a Problem from a Different Direction

April 15, 2013

Last year, my older son started kindergarten. He went from a small preschool where everyone knew his name to a big, urban elementary and middle school. There were a lot of changes, but the biggest one for me was the drop-off and pick-up. Gone was the carpool lane where you could drop off your kid […]

Read the full article →

Why I Had 7 Heart Attacks in One Week

April 12, 2013

First off: I did not really have any actual, medically defined heart attacks, so you can all relax. Heart health is no laughing matter, but I had to get you to read this post somehow, didn’t I? And I DID suffer many, MANY instances of panic and terror this week, thanks to my wild children […]

Read the full article →

3 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Had Kids

April 10, 2013

I feel like these days it’s pretty hard NOT to know the scoop on what awaits you during pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond. After all, the tabloids are chronicling expectant moms’ Kate Middleton’s and Kim Kardashian’s every move. (And pound. Poor girls.) Reality shows abound — “Teen Mom,” “A Baby Story,” and my personal favorite, “I […]

Read the full article →

A Second Chance at Childhood? No, Thanks

April 5, 2013

The boys raced down the hill towards the train station. It was a miniature train, wooden seats and open sides, that made a short loop around the nature center we were visiting with their grandparents and aunt. It was a bright, warmer-than-usual spring day in Massachusetts, not too crowded. We all found seats together, and […]

Read the full article →

Oh, Yeah, I Forgot: My Life’s Crazy

April 3, 2013

So I’m back from a 4-day trip up north to visit family over the Easter weekend. Our journey involved 2 kids, 1 dog, and a vehicle stuffed full of snacks, blankies, DVDs, coloring books, and more electronic devices than you can shake a (memory) stick at. BTW, we used them ALL. Family roadtrip brought to […]

Read the full article →

Flashback Friday: Spring Musings

March 29, 2013

While I spend the long weekend celebrating Easter with family in New England, please enjoy this post from my archives. The scenery looks a little different this year, since we got SNOW on Monday!! That crazy Mother Nature. Spring Musings My days may be filled with drama and stress and bodily fluids, but they are […]

Read the full article →

For Writer-Moms Who Struggle with Guilt and Expectations

March 27, 2013

She had me at “Groundhog Day.” A writer for one of my favorite blogs, Just.Be.Enough, wrote about the internal tug-of-war she’s having trying to reconcile her urge to be a writer with her stay-at-home-mom circumstances. I, too, have written about how the life of an at-home mom feels eerily like that ‘90s movie where Bill […]