Illyse Lane

Admissions and apologies

This is my public apology. Because sometimes, when you make someone in your family so mad, itâs just not good enough to apologize only to his face. He may long for the big admission.Â He may want you to scream âI was so completely wrongâ loudly from the rooftops.Â He may get a tiny bit of satisfaction if there was nothing left to utter except for those two little-but-oh-so-big…

Posted 7 mon. ago.

Then and Now

A few months ago, I broke up with Target. I had no choice. I was unable to control myself when I set foot through its sliding doors. And given the dismal state of our economy, our family had to make some changes. Initially, it was tough. Three months later, Iâm still slowly getting over it. I consider myself a recovering Targaholic. I can now reflect on how lovely that time was, but also re…

Posted 7 mon. ago.

A Broken Prong

I have an uncanny ability to remember phone numbers, addresses and dates.Â The birthday of a friend named Pam from my 4th grade class?Â Got it.Â My first phone number â the one my mother taught me when I was younger than my children? I can recite it.Â The full addresses of every house Iâve ever lived in? Just ask. So I couldnât help but notice that Really Big Guy and I a…

Posted 7 mon. ago.

Waking Up

For as long as my boys have been getting up for school, Iâve been their alarm clock.Â I know Iâd be fostering independence by mandating that they actually set the clocks that rest on their nightstands, but since they havenât asked, I havenât pushed.Â This morning ritual is one of the last of little boyhood that we still have.

Posted 7 mon. ago.

Too Much Everything

Call me confused. But I donât get the allure of Facebook.Â At least for our generation. Â For our children, especially those in high school and college, Facebook represents the era in which we live.Â When I grew up, it was getting your own phone line. Now, kids have their own account.Â Itâs a rite of passage as they learn how to navigate the social sector.Â But for us, as …

Posted 8 mon. ago.

Pleasant Little Packages

Really Big Guy and I moved in to our home when we were almost engaged, nearly 13 years ago.Â At the time, we didnât understand the value of a good neighborhood. And Iâm not talking dollars and cents.

Posted 8 mon. ago.

Brief Expectations

Last Friday, I received a letter from my doctor with the results of my yearly visit.Â It said all was normal and to follow up with a postpartum appointment. Huh? Â My gut feeling was that this was a simple mistake.Â But another part of me secretly wondered if the doctor was trying to tell me something.Â Something that he neglected to mention when I was there.Â As in perhaps I was wi…

Posted 8 mon. ago.

Forget Me Not

It finally happened. After nearly ten years of being a parent, I finally did it. I forgot my baby. My baby is 8 years old. So he was old enough to know that he had been temporarily forgotten. Luckily, in true Little Guy fashion, he wasnât upset. He was more perplexed. He couldnât understand why. Of course, he got over it. But the mother guilt was enormous.

Posted 8 mon. ago.

Looking Away

Last Tuesday morning, I braced for the most dreaded appointment of the year. The annual checkup.Â Â Â It wasnât dreaded for the obvious reasons.Â The helpless feeling.Â The discomfort.Â The staring at the ceiling (oh, men, stop cringing).Â It was the weigh in. Â I shouldnât have cared.Â Itâs just a number. My clothes fit.Â I can run a few miles.Â I ea…

Posted 8 mon. ago.

Erasing Doubt

Iâm mostly a stay at home mom. So most of my work is done in the home, for the benefit of the people that live in it. I do freelance work, but that too, is done from my home. In a chair, seated in front of my handy old computer.Â And when I need to venture out, I turn to my rolling home on wheels Iâve been content with my home-based life. I havenât felt as though I was missing o…

Posted 9 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.