I miss my moms.

We came together as a group during one of those important transition moments: Our kids were leaving their safe, nurturing child care center, heading for “big school.” All working moms, we were struggling with the guilt of changing circumstances, wondering if we’d made the right decisions about the next steps for our kids.

Nine of us had kids around the same age, and we needed each other.

Click here to read the rest of my column, and then tell me what you thought — have you been in mom’s groups, or book clubs or any other kind of regular group that’s lasted a long time? What are your secrets? Why did it last?

I can’t quite believe it, but it’s been two years today that I launched iDivamemphis and the conversation that just keeps getting better with women in the Greater Memphis area (and beyond). You know, so much happens online — and in life — that I think blog years are kind of like dog years: One really equals seven, or something like that. (In the pix, the wonderful champagne flutes that my girlfriends gave me at the party launching this endeavor. I’ll never be able to say how much their support meant/still means to me.)

You might remember that my goal was to start another way for us to talk to each other, since the conversations I have with my girlfriends are what gets me through the day (and sometimes the night, too). And of course there are plenty of other wonderful girl/mom/diva blogs; I’m always collecting new ones. If you haven’t ever been to Dining with Monkeys, Sassymolassy, Secret Agent Mom and the mother of ‘em all, Dooce (she grew up in Bartlett!), go! Soon! Then tell me: What other girl/mom/diva blogs should I check out?

And thanks for two very good years.

It’s been nearly two weeks, and I’m still in mourning for the photos that were inside the (crummy, old) digital camera that was lost … click HERE to read more in my column this morning. Even though I now have a snazzy new camera, and can print those photos right here at home (thanks, honey), I’m still so sad about the memories I’ve lost. Fortunately, I can keep making new ones. But still ….

I start with the best of intentions, scooping up red and pink cards weeks in advance of Valentine’s Day. But this year, somehow, I didn’t send a one.

So I’m feeling regretful this morning … there’s never a bad time to tell the people you love that you love them, and why, and I kind of feel as though I’ve missed my chance. (The lotus blossoms the monk is preparing to offer to Buddha in the photo seemed like an appropriate “card.”) So here goes … though there are way more Loves in my life than I could ever fit on one list.

Join me: Who do you love, and why? Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah, you probably already know that PMS is the name of the book “PMS: Problems Men Started,” a funny and fun book by the publisher and founder of Skirt!, Nikki Hardin, who’s in town today signing her book at Davis-Kidd, 6 pm. (That’s Nikki, in love with Stephen Colbert, who inexplicably refused to wear a skirt for her and the magazine!) We hope you also find a copy of the February issue of Skirt! — click HERE for a list of places to pick one up. It’s free!