The Brilliant Balance Blog

Several months ago, I noticed that my time spent on Facebook was not entirely, shall we say, productive. The same was true of Instagram. And Twitter. Much of my time on these sites was quite good, of course; it was informative, or entertaining, or both. I truly love staying up to date on the happenings of my friends and family […]

It was all of 58 degrees at our first soccer game this morning. I just adore fall, and this was our very first sign of its impending arrival.  My heart was so full as thought about the good things to come – apple pie, cozy sweaters, soup on the stove, and a trip to the pumpkin patch. Yep, that little preview of […]

My kids came home tonight talking about kickball. My oldest daughter doesn’t usually want to play it at recess (let’s just say that apple didn’t fall far from this tree), but as you might suspect, it’s one of my son’s favorite games. Today though, my daughter decided (and I quote) “to be brave and just […]

Allow me to preface this post by explaining that my husband routinely refers to me as “The Orchid” because I have approximately a one degree fahrenheit range in which I am comfortable inhabiting this Earth. One degree warmer and I’m all “I’m dying in this house – is our AC even working?” One degree colder and it’s “God, […]

This morning, I had coffee with one of my best friends. She’s someone who doesn’t let me off the hook even when I’m squirming with discomfort in conversation; she’s fearless that way.  I don’t always love it when we get into a challenging topic, because being pushed is never exactly fun. But I value it, because her push is my nudge to grow. […]

As a working mother, at this time of year I feel like I’m staring at the GPS of my life and it’s stuck on that all-too-familiar screen that simply reads, “Recalculating.” With new school schedules, sports schedules, activity schedules, meal times, bus times, dropoff and pickup times, homework times, and bedtimes….everything is one big tangle […]

I still remember the first day I paid someone to clean my house. (Gulp.) Before I made the call to hire someone, I had tossed the idea around in my mind for years. I kept telling myself that it was an unnecessary luxury. I really could do it myself. My mother always did and still does. It would […]

My baby started kindergarten today. I couldn’t write about anything else if I tried. Today is her day, yet it also marks a change of seasons for our whole family, and we’re keenly aware of it. As my parents and my husband and I paraded the kids to the bus stop this morning, snapping photos and adjusting backpacks, […]