Month: December 2025

December 2025

A Season for Strategies

December 18, 2025 / Doing Divorce

I stitched every inch of this holiday advent calendar. I could spend an equivalent number of hours delighting in it as I did creating it. However, if I had to pull from the pocket the felt toy from each of the days I would not have my daughters with me in December, the calendar would be only half-filled. That old familiar frustration of having to share my daughters with their dad during the holidays stings anew. In 7 years of sharing holidays, I confess it has not become as easy as I had hoped. In fact, for me, it is

Turning the Page

December 11, 2025 / Doing Divorce

It is too dramatic to say I felt disbelief staring at my sixteen-year-old daughter’s handwritten words. But it was certainly on the spectrum of stunned. In a rare and fleeting moment of one-on-one time with my busy teenager, she was sharing with me the journal she had been tasked with keeping for her high school writing class. I read the words again: “For me, the holiday season has been hard. With having divorced parents, I don’t think it will ever be easy. There is always guilt when leaving one parent on Christmas morning to go to the other, knowing that the parent

Mediation Mondays: A Simple Checklist to Prepare for Mediation

December 8, 2025 / Divorce Made Simple, Divorce Tips, Legal Process, Mediation Mondays

Mediation works best when both parties arrive prepared, focused, and ready to participate in good faith. Whether you’re headed into a divorce, custody, or family mediation, taking a few simple steps ahead of time can make the process smoother and more productive. 1. Clarify Your Goals Before mediation, take time to think about what truly matters to you. What are your priorities? Are there outcomes you feel strongly about, and where do you have flexibility? Knowing your goals helps you communicate more clearly during the session. 2. Organize Important Documents Bring any documents that may be relevant to your situation.

Social Media Missteps

December 4, 2025 / Doing Divorce

I will not likely ever forget the pit in my stomach. It was in the wee hours of the morning when sleep evaded me. After a recent break-up, my thoughts were not yet managed, nor healed. I rolled over in bed to open my laptop and before I knew it there he was in a tuxedo looking better than ever. A tear pricked and my stomach rolled as I tried to process something that I simply could not. How was he smiling a few weeks after our break up when I hadn’t even been able to attempt that feat? Where