Short blog tonight; the kids need their mama. But I wanted to let you know that I'm going to be a bartender this week.

This Wednesday, I'm guest-bartending from 5 pm to 7 pm at Abreo restaurant in Rockford…

All my life, I've spent way too much energy and time caring what people thought about me. 

And feeling sorry. 

As a musician, I figured if people didn't like me (and-by extension-my music), they wouldn't buy my records…

This week, a lot of things turned up, seemingly out of nowhere.  

On the restaurant front, we came into loads of hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, watercress, & juniper berries.  I could hardly believe my good luck.  All of these treasures were…

A few weeks ago, one of the writers from Umgås--a Scandi magazine I reference all the time at my restaurant--contacted me out of the blue. I was dumb-founded and honored; he wanted to write a story about my journey through…

We live in a world that loves to find fault.  

At least I do.  

When I was in undergrad, I took a personality test. The number one adjective that chocked me up? Fault-finding. No joke. I felt embarrassed…

I'm writing this blog with a 2-month old baby on my shoulder.  (My friends' newborn has colic, and I offered to take him off their hands for the night.)  So no blog from me tonight. I have so much to…

When I was a kid, I was the crazy one.  The dreamer.  The prankster who couldn't stop laughing.  The stay-up-too-late writing music chic w/ a pot of coffee I didn't even like to drink, but man, it made me feel…

The Amazon rainforest is burning.  It's hard to think about anything else.

It makes me feel tiny.  And powerless. I find myself thinking disparate thoughts, simultaneously: first, I would do anything to help, and second, there's nothing I can…

Growing up, my family worked even when we weren't working.   For fun, we raked leaves.  For laughs, we split wood.  For a real hoot, we cut our brush, made a bonfire out of it, and invited the neighbors over for…

I'm a woman of very little mystery.

Everyone knows exactly how I'm doing.   I sigh audibly when I'm relieved.  I bawl when I feel sad. I squeal when I'm happy, and I hug way too long when I'm in…

Man, some weeks are just perfect on the home front. This was one of them. I wrote several songs, cooked up a storm, spent some time with friends, took my kids to a county fair, and even got to walk…

On Thursday morning, I was driving the kids to daycare.  My son said to me: "Mom, don't you think you need to see us more often?"  My heart broke; I felt my face get red and my throat get dry…