Simply Put

Let’s go back to basics a little

Just a “phone call” checking in and talking about expanding our family, becoming a sports mom and a reminder that things are still going on in the world even if I’m not the one to listen to speak on them. Go find the people.

Plenty of quality issues and lots of appearances from little man but I was sent an email and it was a great question so there’s no time like the present to respond

wizard_bizan1 is the account I reference specifically. Also important is adnan.barq, eye.on. Palestine, Antony Loewenstein, the book “The Palestine Laboratory”, and reading about the Israel National Skin Bank. There’s a national institute of health paper on it from 2000 that’s a great place to start

Ashes to ashes may be a thing a little sooner than we all planned.

Let’s talk about school and how what we think is best may not be what’s actually best. I took the conversations published with Mel from 2021 and used those (as well as lots of support from her and other education friends I have) to find a school that we were comfortable with and a school that checked the boxes of what SHE wanted to get out of school, education and finding balance. If we had though...

This episode was recorded June 13th but since my daughter just started kinder that means we’ve been having this discussion quite often so there will be a follow up conversation posted this week to talk about the process of choosing a school for her and why we chose what we did for our tiny mixed kid

After 12 requests, 3 weeks, 2 new things, and 42 (now) drafts this is the best I’ve got—It wasn’t long after *that song* came out that people were asking me what I had to say about it and I was so fixated on finding something to say about it that was worth talking about here that I spent many hours, days, and weeks trying to stay on topic and combine all the bits together in one cohesive thing. It...

Is it too good to be true?

We went from the least stigmatized form of social service to one of the most stigmatized forms and if you don’t think this is what it’s like to actually sit across from me and have coffee (GFuel) while talking about something I feel passionate about you’d be wrong. Both programs require families to give the equivalent of their first born in terms of access to their lives and restrictions both prog...

The day I figured out that it didn’t have to be me against the world was a day my entire advocacy journey changed. I always knew that I had friends, family, acquaintances, and a network of advocacy-focused alums at my back but it never occurred to me to ask an insurance company for help. Which is probably why I didn’t think about it until after they offered. What a time to be alive, right?

Being a member of or ally for marginalized communities requires you to be aware of your surroundings a bit differently.

Come and have coffee with me and let’s chat about the ins and outs of navigating social services. One of the ways I’ve kept busy during my time off is by being there for my friends. While I’ll never be the one who has a bunch of extra money, I’ll always be the one willing to bring some coffee and your favorite pastry and sit with you while we figure things out. In the last 7 months I’ve assisted w...

As of early May 2023 this is the biggest advocacy win with my mom. While this is a retelling of what happened, at the end, it goes over the importance of knowing the ins and outs of patient history in order to push where you can. Often the most powerful way to advocate in these (most) scenarios is by simply being more informed on the subject than everyone else. The retelling shows how important it...

Criticism? Totally fine. Invalidating other people’s difficult season because, in your eyes, your life is more difficult is a garbage take. Me being open about the difficult season I’m in while being pulled 750 different ways is not invalidating you struggling with work/life balance. It’s also not invalidating the difficulty of working out of the home. But let’s stop pretending that being a stay a...

What started out as a day full of errands became a day full of losses and disappointment pretty quickly. It took me no less than 7 takes to even get something that didn’t involve some sort of unexpected interruption but that’s life. Let’s talk about that and some more content changes over my long-empty coffee cup.

It’s been a long time. Here’s a bit of where I’ve been, some more intricate explanations as to why I took time away, and a bit of where this is going in the future.

I spend a lot of time encouraging people to ask questions but sometimes I’m not always the right person to answer. Here Liz and I sit down to answer one subscribers questions. This, as well as the previous episode, has been publish with the consent of the person involved as a way to make a teachable moment extend past them. Unedited, as (almost) always, because the feedback I’ve gotten has insiste...

I get knocked down and I get knocked down and I get up agaknocked down. I’m down for a small count. Probably. Maybe. Because I’m human

Disclaimer: it is my responsibility to make sure the places I go are safe for myself and my family however there are plenty of times where “allies” could have stepped in and prevented it from happening

Just me this time. Intro to being nice v kind. Article mentioned in recording from Blackburncenter(dot)org https://www.blackburncenter.org/amp/nice-vs-kind-why-does-it-matter

“—so I went to another store”

Let’s get on the same page! Totally my fault that I went so long without clarifying, I didn’t understand what I wasn’t being clear about before. Also, a personal update at the end.

More racism in medicine

Mel is back to react to the overturning of RvW. We talk about proper ways to protest, safety looking different for everyone, and the disappointment we feel in those who continue to allow this to happen and the fear we have with how far it will go before it finally stops