The Final Countdown: 14 Southern Fried Lessons

Willis Tribe

We leave the South in six short days. The boxes are packed, we’re eating with plastic utensils, and the truck arrives on Friday. When we moved in the summer of 2011, I told Chris I was willing to try anything for two years. “Our two-year vacation,” I called it. “And at the end of those […]

Hot Mess

I always wanted to be Carolyn Ingalls. And then my air conditioning went out. In Mississippi. And now I take all that prairie life nonsense back. Every single bit of it. I don’t even care if Pa plays his fiddle. I’m out. Indiana has her share of hot, humid days. They can border on unbearable. But […]

A Hand to Hold

Kids' Bathroom

Our neighbors across the street are getting a new roof. These past few early summer mornings have been sunny and cool and beautiful, and I’ve been drinking my coffee and catching up on some front porch reading to begin each day. This morning, though, I had to angle my chair away from the neighbors’ house. […]

The Business of Being Human

Katrina's 8-Year-Old Autobiography

I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon. Sure, I love her words and her wit and her candor, but I wasn’t going to gush about it and fall all over myself and sing her praises. Why? I don’t know. Pride? Envy? Probably both. Probably, shamefully, more of the […]

Ode to Packing

Packed Boxes

I am beyond humbled by the response my letter to Sam received. Thank you so much for loving it, for sharing it, for embracing it. The comments were so positive and kind… and so very fun to read. The only semi-negative thing people had to say concerned my long-windedness. And that’s not really negative when […]