I have never married and I have no children. As I typed that sentence I thought “OMG, I just called myself a spinster!  Surely that can’t be.”

Eager to redefine myself, I went online and googled “define spinster.”

“My boyfriend doesn’t want to get his license because he rides his bike everywhere he goes. “

That’s the sentence I say just before I find myself on the receiving end of incredulous, judgmental, and scrutinizing looks...

It’s no secret women have a tendency to judge their own bodies a little more harshly than men. I must admit, I too fall into that habit from time to time.

It wasn’t until I entered college, I started to get a better understanding of the “perfect body type”: healthy...

On a recent Sunday morning, I took a leisurely jog along the Colorado Riverfront Trail with my dogs and gained a renewed appreciation for the variety of ways locals enjoy our rivers.

Much of this blog only pertains to the ladies out there, but men shouldn’t tune out just yet; you need to hear this too.

I’m going to open up and share, a lot. I’m trying to show the world that I am not afraid of judgement...

On Friday, March 13, I attended the Walking and Biking Summit in Grand Junction.

I’ll be honest, I’m not sure that if I weren’t a trail advocate I would have had any interest in attending. If you’ve read anything I’ve written, you know I’m kind of a dirt junky. And from the looks of the agenda, the summit was to be all about pavement.

But you know what? I have to ride pavement to get to dirt. I have to ride pavement to get my kids to school.

Frequently, I need to think. Like, THINK. Ideas need to be generated, worked out, designed, before they can be implemented. Sometimes, this thinking is just an emotional need - how to get through the mess my life feels it has become. I have discovered that if I turn off my sub-conscious mind and go into the “Alpha State,” these answers come. Easily and accurately. Comfortably.

Child-directed play is a challenge for a lot of parents. In theory, it’s easy, because you just sit there and let your child take the lead. Most of us, though, approach play with an agenda, whether we realize it or not, and turn it into something that feels a bit like work. The movie soundtrack from "Frozen" might drive us crazy, but there is an upside: “Let It Go” is a great mantra for parents when it comes to things like child-directed play.

Tuesday was a red letter day for me. 

After seven weeks of being “non-weight bearing” on my right foot, I finally got permission from my doctor to go to “partial weight bearing.”  

He said that I was healing well, following my January surgery for a broken distal fibula. He’d put in a plate, a pin, and seven screws in order to put my ankle back together. I had good range of motion in my foot (at least when it came to pointing and flexing) and he prescribed physical therapy for me.

Last year, when I was 34, I started a new website: trails365.com. Through this website, I tracked more than 365 experiences I had on trails - a year or mores worth. It was a goal I set for myself at a time I was feeling particularly - let’s say - ambitious. At the time, I didn’t realize how truly far-fetched this concept was. It wasn’t until I started telling people about it, and attempting to actually do it, that it sank in: This would be a life-altering experience.

No matter how many little siblings you grew up with, how many kids you babysat over the years, how many child development books you’ve read, you will never truly be prepared for parenthood when it happens.

A month ago, I was intrigued when my friend Sherry told me about this year’s selection for the One Book, One Mesa County program. Mesa County Libraries’ choice for this year’s literary event was Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, by New Yorker cartoonist, illustrator and author Roz Chast. It covers a familiar topic for Sherry and me: aging and dying parents... 

Have you ever stopped to think how painful it is for a newbie to walk into a gym?

To them, everyone is fit and strong and amazing, just like they want to be. They are likely intimidated and overwhelmed. The courage it took to walk in the doors was huge.

Now, are we going to make them feel unwanted?

My mother died at the end of October at the age of 87. She didn’t “pass away” or “expire” or “depart.” She died. I’ve never understood why people use euphemisms rather than talk directly about death.

Her death certificate says she died of “end stage dementia,” whatever that is. She died because she stopped eating and drinking (or…she stopped drinking and eating because she was dying). She was tired of living – she was “done.”

My husband and I thought about putting our Christmas tree in a different spot in our living room this year. But then the panic happened and we changed our minds.

Our middle school daughter was definitely not OK with this potential change to the holiday plan. The tree has been in the same place since we moved into this house 10 years ago, and putting it somewhere else was not an option, according to her. It just wouldn’t be Christmas.