Welcome to my blog, where I mostly natter on about my life with five kids. Occasionally (not very often, because teenagers keep a person humble) I dispense parenting advice. Occasionally I write about other things, like books. (Those are probably affiliate links in posts about books. If you click through and buy something, Amazon will pay me a little bit of money.) Or faith or food or my secret strategy for dealing with annoying kid behavior or whether I am fit to be a mother. Also: who is the mystery intruder? And: does stay-at-home mothering rot the brain?
If you are worried about slow weight gain in a breastfed baby, this is my most-viewed post — hope it's helpful to you. Want to read more? I have some favorite old posts linked here, or you can find my archives here.
My name is Jamie. I am married to the handsome and hilarious math geek known in these pages as Elwood P. Gladly. We have five children, who range in age from 27 to 15. (Yes, we're Catholic.)
I started this blog in October 2006, a couple of months into a doctoral program. (I used to write as CJ, which is why you may run across it in older posts or comments.) These days I'm a tenured professor in an allied health program. My archives also include some posts from an older blog, which is you'll find some bits and pieces from '04 and '05.
Why "most gladly"? That's why.
Why "light and momentary"? Same book, different chapter.
Why did I decide to complete a doctoral program with four five kids? Burning curiosity about my research question, plus a teeny masochistic streak.
Baking, Dickens, running for novices, folk music, and the impact of early fatty acid intake on neurodevelopment. also a painless strategy for keeping four five kids in matching (or at least matching-ish) socks through a Midwestern winter.