Midwest Mimi

  • How Almost Dying Taught Me Life’s Too Short to Be Unhappy

    After surviving respiratory failure, I woke up to more than a second chance at life—I woke up to clarity. I stopped waiting for perfect moments, learned to protect my peace, and began truly living again. This is the story of how almost dying taught me what it means to be alive.

  • Lessons from Wonderland: What Alice Still Teaches Me About Life, Parenting, and Growing Up

    Lessons from Wonderland: What Alice Still Teaches Me About Life, Parenting, and Growing Up

    During a fall evening photo shoot turned Wonderland adventure, I realized how much Alice still has to teach us. Through curiosity, slowing down, difference, imagination, and growth, I found reflections of motherhood, healing, and becoming — lessons tucked inside the golden light of an ordinary day.

  • When I Became Her Mother

    In that first moment of motherhood, something in me shifted. Every scar I carried started to look like a map I didn’t want her to follow. As she grew, I saw pieces of myself in her, and glimpses of who she might become, all at once. Motherhood slowly, sometimes painfully, made me relearn softness. She…