2024-03-08 10:43
Value the work of women. Today and every day. For more amateur dramatics follow me on Instagram and subscribe to my monthly newsletter, Word of Honour. Until them, Vive les femmes. Love,Me Read More
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Wine And Cheese (doodles) Blog
wineandcheesedoodles.com
Slightly salty observations about life, family, and parenting abroad
2024-03-04 16:38
March is my favorite writing month. The thirty-one days of Women’s History Month gives me an excuse to gather all my favorite things–women, words, and wit–on the page. Oh… Read More
2024-02-19 13:52
Can you believe it’s taken me this long to use my own name like this? Talk about a missed branding opportunity. The inaugural issue of Word of Honour is on target to hit inboxes around… Read More
2024-02-06 13:58
Hey friend, it’s been a while! What’s new, you ask? Well, in November, I released my second book, It’s a Lot to Unpack, a memoir of my journey from New York badass to inter… Read More
2023-01-12 13:51
There are always some which flourish; some, that with the right care, blossom and grow and flower.
Those are the ones that sting to leave behind Read More
2022-01-07 13:52
It's not you, it's (Alpha/Delta/Omicron) Read More
2021-12-18 16:51
Someday when they’re older, the children will get it
That parents do all the work and get none of the credit Read More
2021-09-21 11:32
Listen to grandma! If you're new to this circus, give yourself some breathing grace Read More
2021-06-14 13:27
It's the annual summertime dance around the expat maypole--- if the maypole was made up of travel documents, shipping instructions, and school applications with ribbons of packing tape flyin… Read More
2021-06-09 09:00
Be patient with me over the next year, kid. It's the end of the beginning. Or perhaps it is the beginning of the end Read More
2021-05-21 10:33
Don't get hung up on boxes. They're overrated. The edges are sharp and you get paper cuts on your heart. Color outside the lines. Leave yourself room to walk out. Try circles or rhombuses or… Read More
2021-05-12 10:36
...aging on the way to old? Well that is too much. There is too much raw energy, too much bare anger and rage and all the feelings worn on the outside, showing, demanding we look Read More
2021-05-03 07:55
Living in a constant state of flux is difficult, as the last year has proven to the whole world.
You know who lives in a constant state of flux?
Expats Read More
2021-04-20 10:03
Once upon a time, on a late Friday afternoon, there was an itty bitty slip of a thing–or as itty bitty as a 5’9″, thirty year old woman could be. She was so teeny that she… Read More
2021-03-29 12:00
“I’ve had my baptism by fire . . . sometimes, I’m so angry I can’t even breathe.” Read More
2021-03-25 12:00
A girl full of smartness Read More
2021-03-22 12:00
“And through a woman {came forth} the better things.” Read More
2021-03-18 19:29
Sometimes called the Dahomey Amazons, the all-female military regiment were actually known as Mino or Minon: “our mothers” Read More
2021-03-17 00:00
“If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself.” Read More
2021-03-16 12:00
Anne and Mary: two ships passing in the night...except instead of passing, the women’s lives collided Read More
2021-03-15 12:00
While Juana Inés might have been ready for the world, the world she was born into wasn’t ready for her Read More
2021-03-12 12:00
Stop painting us out of the picture. We’ve been there all along Read More
2021-03-11 12:00
The brutal choices that face women left behind during wartime hardly get a mention in our histories Read More
2021-03-09 18:36
Gladys Bentley didn’t push boundaries as much as she obliterated them Read More
2021-03-08 14:47
When you are continually told--in words, in actions, in systems--that you are worthless or less than, you have to seek out things to love. And that self-love becomes an act of rebellion Read More
2021-03-05 15:00
Women are, were and always have been inventing things. We just don’t hear about them as much Read More
2021-03-04 18:57
The confirmation that the Birka Warrior is a woman does more than just rearrange our assumptions, it shows us that when we have women archeologists and historians, we’re allowing diffe… Read More
2021-01-28 10:06
Sometimes extraordinary times require extraordinary language Read More
2021-01-19 15:00
I’m the last person to look to for advice when it comes to accentuating the positive. I have a tendency to get mired in the muck of the mundane, stuck in the shit, bogged down in the b… Read More
2021-01-05 09:54
So in January 2020, like every other year, I bought myself a spanking new planner. A whole book of crisp, white pages just waiting to be filled in with the mundane and the exciting. Coffees… Read More
2020-12-11 12:16
There are no rules. Everything is on the table. Everything is up for grabs Read More
2020-12-07 13:01
Never have so many done so little of what was asked Read More
2020-11-27 14:55
It’s almost impossible to reflect on 2020 and not think of Dickens. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was… Read More
2020-10-24 11:22
Twas mere weeks ’til election, when all through the landThe people were voting by mail and by hand; The ballots were mounting in state after stateCast after four years of interminable… Read More
2020-06-15 10:57
When I was a girl, I used to collect bunches of dandelions. It didn’t matter to me that everyone else was trying to get rid of them–out, out, damned weed!–I thought they we… Read More
2020-05-22 11:14
This week my kids went to school. Normally that’s not a noteworthy accomplishment. But we’re living in anything but normal times. Then on Wednesday the husband, who’s been… Read More
2020-05-01 08:27
Sometimes, being a mother sucks. I could list the different ways in which it sucks. I could give you bullet points which highlight varying degrees of suckiness, but one of the things that su… Read More
2020-04-23 12:24
Unless you’re living under a rock (superb social distancing points), navigating this virus is affecting most aspects of our lives. It’s upended economies. It’s uprooted nat… Read More
2020-04-20 12:46
If heart disease is the silent killer, passive aggressiveness is the silent marriage killer. It is astonishing how much rage a toothpaste tube or coffee mug on the side of the sink can induc… Read More
2020-04-15 09:32
I’m no stranger to mood swings. I’ve got 18 months of pregnancy hormonal mood swings under my belt, plus decades of PMS, plus menopause. And I’m married to a Gemini. I thou… Read More
2020-04-02 08:31
I am not a natural optimist. Realist bordering on pessimist perhaps, glass half empty–but because I drank it. But definitely not an optimist. There is no sunshine in my Suzy. There is… Read More
2020-03-31 11:35
Half-Dressed Hilda If a mullet is business in the front, party in the back, Hilda is the work-from-home equivalent. From the neck up it’s pearls, makeup and softly styled hair, but bel… Read More
2020-03-27 13:18
At any given time, on any given day, there are approximately 97 thousand things I should or could be doing. Laundry, updating vaccination records, working on another novel that will probably… Read More
2020-03-17 10:35
These are uncharted waters. A lot of us are hanging on by our increasingly bitten nails, preparing for the worst while simultaneously praying for the best. No matter what that may feel… Read More
2020-03-05 16:57
Mozart had a sister who played as masterfully as he but Nanneral was married off, a career cut short because Ms. Mozart was a “she” Ros Franklin spent her whole career X-r… Read More
2020-02-27 11:04
For a small nation, Denmark certainly looms large in the conversation. From hygge to Noma to Joe and the Juice, my current country of residence garners more than its fair share of atten… Read More
2020-02-03 13:18
Here’s where my story starts. Almost twelve years ago, my husband and I were sitting up in bed on a sunny, Sunday morning. The kids were blissfully and, unusually, asleep; it was a rar… Read More
2019-12-09 10:00
On the first day of Housework my true love gave to me A shower with privacy On the second day of Housework, my true love gave to me 2 peaceful siblings and A shower with privacy On the… Read More
2019-09-19 10:10
No matter how hard I try, whenever I dress “up” I always end up looking a little bit like Joan Jett. I’m never going to be delicate. Or subtle. Before the internet, I wasn… Read More
2019-09-11 08:27
Eighteen years is a long time. It’s enough time to mature from infant to adult, for edges to lose their sharpness and dull to the touch. Photographs fade and colors mute, losing their… Read More
2019-08-16 15:22
To Mazu, goddess of the seas, hear my plea for calm waters because I’m not 100% sure I filled out the insurance claim properly and we are all desperately sick of wearing the same cloth… Read More
2019-07-11 14:49
For the last month my life has been full to overfull of women (and men!) gushing over other women. A lot of that space has been taken up by the US Women’s National Soccer Team and thei… Read More
2019-06-21 08:08
What’s that you say? You’re moving? It’s going to be ok. No, no, really, you have to trust me. I know, I know–it’s an upheaval, an emotional train-wreck, a logi… Read More
2019-06-17 17:43
Most of us have danced to this goodbye song before. Maybe your dancing shoes are so worn the heel is loose. Or maybe you’re still learning the choreography, trying not to step on any t… Read More
2019-06-14 09:33
At the risk of sounding like a meme or a break room poster quote, let me explain. When you move around, you spend an awful lot of time focusing on the where. Where are you going? Where did y… Read More
2019-05-27 09:11
Corporate Carla Carla was a big shot before she had kids. She knows that. You know that. We all know it. Her resume’s impressive, no doubt about it. Managing mergers and ac… Read More
2019-05-21 10:12
There are expats who bounce around like global jumping beans, serial movers, making home sweet homes wherever they go. There are one-shot Wandas who live abroad for the turn of an Earthly ax… Read More
2019-05-12 09:31
Ah Mother’s Day. When we’re encouraged to laud the women who taught us how to tie our shoes, eat soup without clinking the spoon against our teeth, and to make beds with the corn… Read More
2019-05-01 10:36
SPOILERS BELOW: Women’s roles, in literature and cinema, as well as in life, are more often about mending wounds than inflicting them. But sometimes, just sometimes, popular culture ge… Read More
2019-04-29 08:56
What do you get when you combine poetry, performance, and a plethora of available imagery? A mixed-mixed media approach to sharing some of my “outside the blog” work! The piece b… Read More
2019-04-17 08:42
I love to write. Scratch that, I love when I have written. But all this promotion boloney that comes with it? Ugh Read More
2019-04-16 09:33
Like many, I waited to see if a piece of history would be leveled. Paris and Hugo and Hemingway. Bells and bell towers, hunchbacks and fear of the marginalized. Asylum, refuge. And above all… Read More
2019-04-09 08:50
This parenting thing—jeesh. At the beginning you’re just a tired little Mom engine struggling up a mountain of sleepless nights and stanky diapers, sometimes literally crying ove… Read More
2019-03-19 10:42
I just got back from chaperoning a trip to a basketball tournament. Four adults, twenty-two tweens. Emotions, hormones, and sweat glands were running high. Deodorant was running low. For man… Read More
2019-03-04 10:22
A recent conversation sucked me, feet first, into the black hole of expat doubt. And by doubt, I really mean: “What the hell is going to happen to my kids at the end of this experiment… Read More
2019-02-14 14:05
Dating: Reservations at the super-fancy/can’t really afford/won’t like the food/you’ll figure out how to pay the credit card bill later/restaurant; roses; fancy chocolates… Read More
2019-01-28 09:08
At a Q&A session at the launch for There’s Some Place Like Home, I was in the hot seat. Luckily the menopausal flashes didn’t make an appearance so that heat was more figurat… Read More
2019-01-11 09:27
I’ve used plenty of phrases to describe living abroad: crazy, upside down, terrifying, exhilarating, tearful, broadening–but after a conversation with a good friend recently, I n… Read More
2018-12-17 14:51
Need a last-minute gift for that special woman in your life? The one who is raising your kids? I know, I know. There are still loads of shopping days left. But as we’re rapidly hurtlin… Read More
2018-12-10 16:25
Bed and Breakfast Belinda Judging by Belinda’s Facebook posts, there’s a never-ending stream of guests taking advantage of her posting in a place a bit more foreign. Visitors fli… Read More
2018-12-05 19:30
Things have been relatively quiet on the Wine and Cheese (Doodles) front of late. Hopefully for good reason. For the past few months I’ve been culling and cutting and revamping and rev… Read More
2018-11-20 10:59
Not long ago I was on a train to London with my son. As soon as he sat down, he reached for his phone. For a few minutes I let him snap his chat and insta his gram. After all, there are stre… Read More
2018-10-04 18:15
View story at Medium.com View story at Medium.com Maybe when you were six, skipping rope, a stranger showed you a part of himself you should never have seen. Maybe when you were eleven, one… Read More
2018-10-01 11:08
It’s not like I didn’t give my children fair warning. I mean, when they’re little I went with the whole “I’ve got eyes in the back of my head” thing, whic… Read More
2018-09-14 13:08
This is a story of Sydney Ireland: Scout. Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. This is the story of Syd… Read More
2018-09-07 10:53
Admitting you’re failing as a parent is never easy. Admitting it on social media means you’re opening yourself up to unsolicited advice–some well-meaning, some not–ju… Read More
2018-09-06 18:10
Unlike John Denver’s musical ode to West Virginia, I am most decidedly not in almost heaven. More like almost hell. I know I’m not in hell because if I were in hell I would… Read More
2018-08-24 10:38
I try to make sure I tell other parents when I see or hear about their children doing something nice, or polite, or funny. I have been known to seek out other parents to let them know their… Read More
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