About L

I’m Leslie, a twenty-something mom to baby Jack and wife to D, and here I’m chronicling my new life as a go-to-work mother. The three of us live on 16 acres in the Arkansas Ozarks in a 75-year-old cottage.

I trained to be a journalist, and my husband planned to be a social worker, but now we both direct academic programs for junior high and high school students at two different universities. Every weekday morning, Jack heads next door to spend the day with my ineffable mother, and we head 35 miles in opposite directions to spend our days in rewarding full-time jobs before returning home to stretch four evening hours into a day’s worth of family.

(We’re working on it.)

This summer we both took on second jobs, as contractors for the construction of a new addition to our formerly tiny house. So far, so good.

I love motherhood, music, photography, old houses, creative nonfiction, cooking, country life, gardening, crafting and going greener, and I have a lot to learn. I’d like to have a bunch of kids. I’m happy to be living in an out-of-the-way kind of place. We take road trips. After years of being months behind, and thanks to breastfeeding, I now proudly read The New Yorker as it arrives. I married young. I watch Lawrence Welk more often than is really okay. I think “parent” is more verb than noun.

I’m here to keep my writing, reading, memory and sense of humor in shape, to reflect on this elaborate balancing act and to read about yours. Thanks for stopping, and for sharing.