Hi! I’m Gina, a well-caffeinated mom of two teens who writes about parenthood, health, travel, and the natural world.

You can usually find me scouring my backyard for interesting birds, pitching story ideas to editors, and fueling myself with coffee and chocolate.

A little more about me…

It was always my dream to become a writer. I have a Bankers Box overflowing with the diaries and spiral notebooks I filled with my adolescent angst. Apparently, I was a bit intense growing up. In 2014, I started blogging about motherhood to help me process the experience of being a mom without my own mother to guide me. I also wanted to reawaken the creative part of my brain that I’d cherished so much as a child. 

Since starting this blog, I’ve found that writing has enabled me to work through some of the challenging aspects of parenthood: the loss of one’s former identity, the sleep deprivation, the endless worries and what-ifs that go along with raising little extensions of ourselves. I hope that if you’re reading this, you might see some of your own parenting experiences reflected and know that you’re not alone. 

My mom died of breast cancer before my children were born, and I’ve felt her absence during my own motherhood journey. She was brilliant and funny, loving and wise. Even during my tumultuous teenage years, she remained my closest confidante, someone to whom I could bare my soul knowing she’d understand. I miss our conversations, both the depth and the hilarity of the subject matter we could share with each other.

I’d like to think that my mother – a newspaper editor and publisher – would get a kick out of me being a writer, too. Since her death in 2004, I’ve written her a letter each year to update her on what she’s missed, and to reflect on how I’ve grown and changed. Those letters are gathering (virtual) dust on my laptop, but maybe I’ll turn them into a book someday. 

My mother’s illness inspired me to get more involved in supporting others affected by breast cancer. In 2017, I joined the board of ABCD: After Breast Cancer Diagnosis, a wonderful organization that provides personalized emotional support to anyone affected by breast cancer – patients, family members, and friends. Then I got to experience ABCD’s services firsthand in 2022, when I faced my own diagnosis. I wrote about it here.

When I’m not hunched over my laptop, I find it helpful to brainstorm story ideas while hitting the pool or slogging through a run. After some health setbacks threw me for a loop, I learned to appreciate the way my changed body moves. Now that I’m in the throes of mid-life, I should probably be stretching more and worrying less about how fast I can pound out 100 yards of freestyle. Though I love to be competitive with myself, I’m also trying to rediscover the joy of movement without tying it to performance.

I’d be remiss not to mention my lovely husband, who won my heart by helping me win a card game one fateful evening during college. I couldn’t do this parenting thing without him, and I’m grateful he shares my weird sense of humor. He tolerates my ranting and raving and my tendency to obsess, among other quirks; in return, I try to look past his belief that white chocolate is real chocolate (alas, I cannot ever see it as real chocolate. I just can’t!).

Oh, one more thing…

You’ll notice that a lot of my blog posts mention coffee. It became a part of my daily routine after our second daughter was born, but my affinity for this beverage must be in my blood. My mom was fond of saying, “Wherever you are, you’ve gotta have a good cup of coffee!” I remember many instances when my dad, brother, sister and I would be waiting in the car, engine running, until my mom scrambled out of the house, clutching a mug of Folgers she’d brewed moments ago. (In retrospect, it’s surprising how infrequently her coffee spilled all over the car, given that she never covered it with a lid. I’ll always think of her as the original “free mugger.”)

​But I digress. Thanks for visiting my little slice of the Internet!

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