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Christmas is almost heeeeeeeere! (Ok, there's still about a week to go, but I have two children who are doing an excellent job at keeping me posted on exactly how many days we have until Christmas. We're talking hourly updates.)

I always have a bit of a rough time getting into the Christmas spirit, and this year is something extra. I want to be all blissed-out in front of a fireplace, feeling cozy and joyful and safe, but it's 70 degrees outside and the world is falling apart around our ears and there's so much to do every day that fireplace bliss doesn't feel like a solid use of my time, and...

I've been writing about emotional labor for years. When I was married, the load that I carried in my mind each and every minute of each and every day was legitimately intolerable - but guess what? Being a single mom is...well, it's not worse, exactly, because there's one fewer person whose needs I have to keep track of, but it's also not better. I still have to maintain a constant and ongoing list in my head consisting of approximately ten thousand tasks per child (and a few for me). And the pets. And the house. And the self-care (hahahahaha).

And! Did I mention I'm moving? I'm moving! (Yes, again, and we'll discuss; I'm going to be putting up before and afters that I think will be super fun.)

You know what moving is?

My dreams veer between acute realism and apocalyptic wastelands - an obvious, albeit depressing, metaphor for my perspective on life. Some nights, I dream that I'm in my own bedroom, eyes open in the dark, everything around me just as it should be...and then I glance upwards, and see a spider drifting down from the ceiling, legs extended towards my face.

Other nights, I'm walking down an office hallway when the building begins to crack, glass shattering in my face. I scurry down the side of a building to shelter beneath a support beam while the rest of the building comes down around me. Later, I find myself charged with shepherding a group of mystery children through the ruins of New York City.

Our OG baby has a sibling!

Pick up a copy of The Big Journal For Pregnant People here, or wherever books are sold. Happiest Mother's Day to all the moms and moms-to-be out there!