A Full Life

Our lives with children were often overflowing with activities, helping and nurturing. Sometimes there was room for little else!

As the nest empties, some breathing space opens up. You can begin to build in the components of a full life after family life.

What does it look like for you? An encore career, perhaps. Or travel. You may be thinking through your new purpose in life and excavating passions that suit you.

It is a time of adventure and exploration, for sure!

How estranged mothers can find acceptance and healing

Reigniting Mom to Live with Purpose and Passion

What does it mean to live with purpose and passion?

A Nest Makeover

Finding your Purpose and Passion: Why it’s important

The surprising link between mental load and creativity

Minimalist Me

Help! I need a more organized mind

New Year’s Resolutions: Giving up on pain!

A proven process for effective decision making

What are your excuses? You have none

Garage life, home life

10 ways to love yourself more

Finding peace in challenging times

Stuff you oughta know by now, woman!

Create more joy in your life!

Symptoms of Inner Peace

9 productivity hacks: Watch me go from dawdler to do-er

New Year’s Resolutions: Giving up on pain!

Sports and Outdoors Christmas Gift Guide

Electronics Christmas Gift Guide

Christmas Toy Gift Guide

Christmas Video Gaming Gift Guide

Christmas Beauty Gift Guide for Men and Women

Christmas Technology Gift Guide

More Mom Stuff

7 Things Mom really wants for Mothers Day

Adult Easter Baskets

Being Rudolph

The holly jolly microscope of Christmas

Post holiday blues, or unbridled excitement?

Merriment is Messy!

Father’s Day DIY

A Dozen Easy DIY Halloween Costumes

Valentine’s Day Crafts for Older Kids

Valentine’s Day gifts for your kids

Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas for Your Man

National Nap Day

Easy Easter Craft: Easter Egg Tree

Father’s Day DIY Gifts

Another fatherless Father’s Day

Pumpkin decorating ideas

Stress-free Halloween party planning

Why do we carve pumpkins?

Easy Thanksgiving crafts for kids

Thankful for my messy, non-Pinworthy life

Easy DIY Thanksgiving Banner

Being grateful

Christmas gift guide for homeschool moms

3 things moms do to mess up Christmas

DIY Christmas kitchen decor

Teach your kids the value of giving this Christmas

A motherless mother on Mother’s Day

Hopes and fears

Starbucks bottle Christmas craft

Holy conversations: Offending or disrespecting

Christmas felt mitten craft for the Uncrafty

Valentine’s Day Ideas for Grown-Ups

How and why the Irish got the brogue

Corned beef and cabbage recipe roundup

5 ways to take care of yourself during stressful times

Christmas gifts for kids you can feel good about: Lego Love

Pause in life’s pleasures

Are you having any fun?

Cat Humiliation

My not-Pinworthy life: Thankfulness

Thankful for my messy, non-Pinworthy life

Being grateful

Lingering Lovingly

Mom Life: My baby is 18

Where I come from

One of those days

Missing my mother-in-law: Grandma Rose’s Scraps

Swiftly flow the years

In the deep

In all things

Being Rudolph

The holly jolly microscope of Christmas

Loss Leaders

Lullabies and Groaning

God pursues His beloved children

Life and death and everything in between

What’s your fruit?

It is well with my soul

The reason for the hope we have

How are you numbering your days?

Another fatherless Father’s Day

Living between the heartbeats

Journal Bible

All you need is love

Strategies for savoring the sacred

Saying good-bye to my mother-in-love

A pretty face and a stolen Gideon Bible

Hopes and fears

What it looks like near the end

What’s in the drawer?

Big Picture/Little Picture

Hit the refresh button

Defined by Cancer?

Never Changing

5 steps to jump start your career

Can you go 5 days phone less?

Finding your Purpose and Passion: Beginning to Discern

Finding your Purpose and Passion: Why it’s important

What does it mean to live with purpose and passion?

Top 6 reasons why you haven’t found your passion

Reigniting Mom to Live with Purpose and Passion

Finding your Purpose and Passion: Beginning to Discern

Finding your Purpose and Passion: Why it’s important

What does it mean to live with purpose and passion?

Emptying Out

Reigniting Mom to Live with Purpose and Passion

It’s Never Too Late to Rewrite Your Story

If you’re standing at a crossroads—wondering where the “you” you used to know went—you are not alone.

Maybe you spent years pouring yourself into your family, homeschooling, raising kids with big needs and even bigger hearts.
Maybe you’re navigating a broken marriage, facing an empty nest that feels a lot emptier than you ever imagined, or grieving distance from your adult children.

You may be asking yourself: What happened to the life I dreamed of?
What happens now?

Here’s the truth:
It’s never too late to rewrite your story.

No matter the detours or disappointments, there is still hope.
There are still beautiful chapters ahead, waiting for you to write them.

What You’ll Find Here

Real Mom Life is a place where you’ll find:

Real talk about motherhood, marriage, divorce, and all the messy parts in between
Honest reflections on faith, family, healing, and hope
Encouragement for the woman who feels forgotten—or who forgot herself along the way
Inspiration to rebuild, rediscover, and live with purpose, passion, and yes—a little pizzazz
A reminder that your story isn’t over—and the next part might just be the best yet

My Story

Hi, I’m Christine—a marriage and motherhood survivor, a recovering perfectionist, and a woman determined to live the second half of life with purpose, passion, and a whole lot of pizzazz.

I spent decades doing what many women do: pouring myself into my family, raising children (some with big needs and even bigger hearts), homeschooling, navigating a long and complicated marriage, and trying to be everything for everyone. Somewhere in all of that, I lost parts of myself I didn’t even realize were gone.

During those intense years of deep mothering, I also wrote seven books for major Christian publishers about parenting, adoption, and homeschooling. I spoke at conferences, encouraged other moms, and tried to offer wisdom from the trenches.

And then—everything I held dear was challenged.

My kids started struggling in ways I couldn’t fix.
My marriage unraveled.
And so did the life I had so carefully built.

Divorce, the empty nest, the ache of adult children who didn’t launch quite the way I’d hoped—it all collided at once.

Sound familiar?

But here’s the good news:
It’s never too late to rewrite your story.

Now in my late 60s, I’m building a rich, meaningful life—not despite the hard chapters, but because of them.
I started dating again (and got married in May 2025!), I’m working full-time in my career as a criminal lawyer, and I’m dreaming bigger than ever.
I’m a woman of faith who’s walked through the fire—and found new life on the other side.

Let’s Walk This Road Together

If you’re wondering what’s next after the life you planned didn’t turn out the way you hoped, you’re in the right place.
We don’t have to shrink or settle.
We get to rise, reclaim, and sparkle.

So pour a cup of coffee (or something stronger), and let’s keep going, together.