First Post

Hello and Welcome! My name is Liz. I’m 36 years old and a mom of two daughters. I am a wife. I am a scientist. I work full-time. I am a daughter, a sister, an aunt, and a friend. I am a proud feminist and a committed ally. I (try to) take good care of my health and fitness. I enjoy creative projects. I love coffee. And on and on and on…  

As I was thinking about starting this, I was trying to figure out what parts of myself I wanted to combine to write about. Maybe I could write about being a working mom? Or, a mom scientist? Or, share science activities to do with your kids? Or, I could write about ways that we try to be allies in our parenting? As I was going through these options, it struck me that all of them were “Mom Plus Something.” Maybe it’s because my kids are still little, but parenting feels pretty all-consuming right now and seems to impact almost everything that I am doing and thinking about these days.

Sometimes this means keeping my kids (and all kids) as a motivation for trying to make the world a better place. Other times it’s using our values to impact the way that we parent and talk to our daughters. Sometimes this looks like making extra arrangements and planning and coordinating so that I can put my focus on something else for a little while. Other times it might look like the juggling that comes after having all the extra arrangements and planning and coordinating fall apart because of an unexpected illness or snow day or some other surprise. Sometimes it’s finding new and interesting activities to entertain your child. Other times it’s the joy of rediscovering the world through your child’s eyes.

I decided that was the theme that I wanted to work with here – “Mom Plus.” How do we juggle everything with being a mom and how do these identities weave together with being a mom.

I’m going to start off with these areas:  

I’m so glad that you’re joining me here. We’ll see where this goes!