Illyse Lane

Slightly Open Doors

The turkey's ready to be thawed.Â The refrigerator has been stocked. Â Extra chairs have been borrowed. Even a new tablecloth has been purchased. I'm ready for the invasion. My family is doing the invading, driving down from the land to the north and up from the sunshine state to spend Thanksgiving at our house. Although I am thankful that we can use my home as the host site, it is interesting…

Posted 1 day ago.

Caught

I admit it. I'd been walking around, thinking my family couldn't be touched. I'd assumed we would just continue to coast on through. But my vitamin devouring, hand washing, Lysol spraying, sheet stripping, clothes changing ritual has failed me. There's a sick child in my home. It hit fast and it's been furious. At least for the first 36 hours. And with so much going around, the doctor's not even s…

Posted 1 week ago.

Slow Motion Side Effects

Nearly every afternoon that we are home, Little Guy rides his bike with my neighbor's son, his pseudo big brother. So there was nothing unusual one late afternoon as my neighbor and I stood at the edge of her driveway, catching up and watching the boys. That is, until I spotted the car coming toward us, traveling into the dead end. It was then I realized I couldn't see the kids. And I got that fee…

Posted 2 weeks ago.

Still Perfect

About nine years ago, when Big Guy was a toddler, he had a buddy whose mother was an acquaintance from the pre-pregnancy days. Although we never spent much time together before kids, impending motherhood and then actual babies bonded us in a way only new mothers understand. Occasionally, she would make the drive from her new, Edward Scissorhands type of neighborhood in deep northwest Raleigh to my…

Posted 3 weeks ago.

The Normal Ones

As I glanced at Really Big Guy from across the airplane aisle, I had a revelation. I figured out that I had married the perfect guy. Oh, don't fall out of your chair, roll your eyes or stop reading. This is not a loving tribute to my husband. I have simply realized that as we fast approach our lucky thirteen year anniversary, I have found the perfect compliment to my crazy, faulty personality. And…

Posted 4 weeks ago.

Boys vs. Girls

As I sat down to write, I was thinking about how thrilled I was to have only boys. After being witness to a "have you bought her first bra?" conversation, I am not so secretly smiling that I don't have to go there. Sure, I'll have my share of other areas to tackle. But for some reason, the girl thing seems a bit more daunting. Which got me thinking. Lately, I have noticed that if you only have chi…

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Compassion

For as long as we've been traveling our city's beltline, we've seen the occasional person standing on the side of the exit ramp asking for money. And my boys have always wondered why. Years ago, when it was the random man holding a sign, I'd explain that the man could be homeless or out of a job and was looking for some help. And in the true spirit of children, my kids would ask if we could give …

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Too Together

School has returned to the line up. It's brought early mornings and jammed packed afternoons. The endless washing of thermoses and environmentally appropriate water bottles. The emptying and repacking of lunch boxes and backpacks. And a hustle to get in the bed at an early enough time. There's more laundry floating through the wash and more reminders drifting through the air. And suddenly, there a…

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Planner People

I'm a pen and paper person. Â A planner girl to the end.Â Even in this day and age of hand held devices which coordinate and connect with the touch of a finger, I prefer the good, old fashioned searching for the pen amongst the clutter on my desk to mark a date on the calendar. Â I thrive on the anticipation of turning on my computer to discover a new e-mail and then, writing down the impor…

Posted 1 mon. ago.

The Dream

Every once in a while, I have the dream. The one where I can't find my class. When I finally do, I'm late. And, of course, I'm not prepared for the test. Waking up from that dream never fails to leave me grateful that school is long behind me. I usually move on and just forget about it. That is, until it creeps into my reality.

Posted 2 mon. ago.

about this blog

Illyse Lane

Illyse is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Thursday.

She is a stay-at-home mom who also works as a freelance writer. She resides in Raleigh with her husband and two sons, ages 8 and 10.Originally from New York, Illyse fled the cold to attend Florida State University. After a brief return to life in the city, she relocated to Raleigh to work for GE Capital and has never looked back. Illyse is sure that as long as all the boys in her home continue to speak, she will have plenty of material to write about.