Blog Archive

In honor of Valentine’s Day, a different kind of love story… We are in the midst of my elder son’s end-of-season 8th grade basketball tournament. My son played his first game last week. They were up against another team we’d ...

Thank you so much to William Henry for the opportunity to step way outside my comfort zone to chat with him on his Be Better World podcast. Yikes! It was scary to step out from behind my keyboard, but William ...

I was absolutely shocked by the reader response to my post, “Deal With It,” in which I gave a stream of conscious list of who I really am, unfiltered. Thank you to everyone who replied to the post, and to ...

Phew! Life got heavy again. Was it ever not in the past 12 months? Maybe not. But I got really stuck there for the past week. It just hurt. And I had big things to say. Now it is time ...

It’s a familiar scene in movies and tv shows… One character calls another after an argument, and as soon as the other person answers, they start their call with, “Please don’t hang up!” That is how I feel as I ...

“A chain is no stronger than its weakest link.”-Tomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man Aside from a few stumbles into the muck this past summer, I am not one to speak up about politics. As soon as you ...

Wow, you guys. In all these years of laying myself bare in my writing, this is seriously the most publicly naked I have ever felt. It just so happens that I am expanding my business during a pandemic podcast explosion, ...

Every year I pick a word to serve as a mantra, a guidepost to point me in the right direction. Little did I know when I chose the word brave for my 2020 word just how much courage the year ...

I became familiar with the spoon theory when I became chronically ill. It’s a handy diagnostic tool that helps someone with a long-term illness express in simple terms how much energy they have on any given day. It was developed ...

So, apparently when I used almost an entire bottle of wood glue to repair the slanting $20 particle board bookshelf where I store my cookbooks, the glue ran down and stuck the bookshelf to the floor. Luckily, I’m married to ...

The single most dangerous thing in this country right now is not rioters or gun-toting militia. The most dangerous thing we face is the fear that law-abiding citizens have of those who disagree with us. It is our fear that ...

There’s this thing called Impostor Syndrome that I only learned about in the past year or so. It’s a mental hitch in your git-along that causes a person to feel inferior to everyone around her, regardless of how much education, ...

When we moved into our house three and a half years ago, there was a decorative roller flag hanging near the front door. It was old, faded, and taped with floral duct tape. We never even pulled it down to ...

This post is over three times longer, and 1,000 times more vulnerable than my typical posts. Bear with me, dear readers, as I process a painful new reality. Before we became friends, I watched Brenna from afar with awe and ...

I know what Heaven feels like. When the seven-year-old’s alarm goes off, and he slips into bed between me and my husband. I lay there in the half-light of a fall morning, soaking in their sleepy scent. Exhausted, my husband ...

I never took a stance on a political issue in my newspaper column, and I’ve carried that tradition forward into my blog. But this time, with this issue, as a White woman with a (albeit very small) platform, I have ...

I have no vanity about the cars I drive, because I’ve rarely been able to afford it. For me, cars are like pets. I name them. I cheer them on when they are struggling. I pat them when they do ...

Through my divorce and then my illness, I learned first that no matter how carefully I planned out my life, things could still go haywire, and second, that sometimes, if you just let things be what they are and trust ...

This is not the first time I’ve asked myself this question. It’s not the first time I’ve been scared. I have autoimmune disease. You can’t see it, but it’s always there, waiting for a moment of weakness, a worry, a ...

Sometimes I need to just check out from the world and dig deep inward, or I get lost. Here are some blessings I’m counting right now… We do not live on a schedule anymore. This is both weird and wonderful ...

Why can’t we acknowledge that a broken criminal justice system does a disservice to the thousands of good cops, as well as the millions of good Black Americans? Why can’t we acknowledge that this broken system has created an environment ...

I know things have been heavy over here at The Sara Beth Times lately. These are heavy times. For the last year or so I’ve been struggling with stepping beyond the neutral, cheerful tone that worked so well in my ...

I want to believe that the White people standing alongside their Black brothers and sisters in the Black Lives Matter protests are all there for the right reasons – to fight for justice, to change the system, to finally rid ...

I’m going to tell you about something that I hold very dear. I’d even go so far as to say it is the foundation beneath everything that I value in my life. Without this foundation, I would not be able ...

My seven-year-old has a lot of fears. And who can blame him? His whole life, the world has seemed like a very scary place. He got sick when he was nine months old, and never really got better until around ...

Most of us, during these unprecedented times, are struck by a surge of compassion towards humanity. We are seeing average people step up to help one another in extraordinary ways. We have all become helpers. And it is a beautiful ...

My boys are six years apart. In the old days, almost a month ago, they went their own way. The older brother would tolerate his younger brother for only so long before the squabbling began. The irritation of the older ...

For eight and a half years I wrote a mostly feel good column in a few small town newspapers. And you know what? I was okay at it. People liked it. They looked forward to it. And so did I ...

I was already struggling with whether to publish this post, before COVID-19. Now I’m even more unsure. It is so heartening to see the amount of good will that is going around, even among people who normally are at each ...

If you feel invisible, I see you and I love you. If you are afraid, remember that courage is not the absence of fear, but standing strong against it. You can do it, and I love you. If you are ...

Ah, Valentine’s Day. The day that couples feel such intense pressure to be romantic that it all but guarantees expectations won’t be met, and even the most confidently single person feels overwhelmingly alone. This year Valentine’s Day is on a ...

Growing up in the rural West, I can’t tell you how many times I heard jokes about Californians, “city folks,” and “back East,” as though people who lived in Cali or east of the Mississippi River were basically clueless idiots ...

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a dude out there who has organized a conference to instruct women on all things feminine. And by feminine, he means at home, pregnant, while simultaneously thin and gorgeous and cooking gourmet meals and ...

January is the time of year that everyone starts going to the gym. Every other local TV and radio ad is pushing discounted memberships and special promotions. I have always hated gyms (and bars). And I don’t use the term ...

It’s a thing among motivated people to choose a word at the beginning of each new year to intently focus on; a goal word that keeps you moving forward with intention. I used to be a motivated person. I still ...

This may not be the most warm and fuzzy thing to talk about this time of year. But our refusal to talk about it only makes the situation that much more difficult for those who are struggling. We have to ...

No post this week. I have a couple of big projects that are taking up my writing time. And plus, Thanksgiving stabbed me in the eye. Well, not literally. That doesn't even make sense. It's just an expression that is ...

It’s been very difficult for me to write about my illness. In fact, when I got sick, I stopped writing altogether. But it’s time to address it. I’m ready… To say that the last few Thanksgivings were challenging for our ...

Okay, guys. We need to have a talk. I’ve discussed this before, and really… It’s so important. You’ve got to stop believing everything the Media tells you. This is the first post in a two-part series on narrowing the urban/rural ...

This post originally appeared in my weekly newspaper column in the Lewistown News-Argus and the Sidney (Mont.) Herald on July 4, 2009. This was before Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter. This was before we debated the virtue of ...

Sometimes I just need to take a break from the world. It isn’t that I don’t love the world. It’s the exact opposite. Sometimes I love the world too much to bear. Like so many others, I have a tough ...

Shopping for jeans for my older son used to be easy. Every season he grew exactly one size bigger. I could walk into a store, choose the right size, and we were all set. Not so for a teenager. Here’s ...

My grandpa died recently. He was 92. He was born in 1928. He spent nearly his entire life on the same Central Montana ranch where he grew up. He was quiet and kind and wise. He had strong opinions but ...

We talk a lot about empowering girls these days. They can do anything! They can be strong and assertive and smart! And they can! For generations, females have been put into a box that only fit a select few. The ...

Life is crazy good. My birthday was on Saturday. I slept in both days this weekend. My husband got up, made pancakes and eggs, brought me my smoothie, let me read and scroll social media. On Saturday morning he brought ...

For eight and a half years I wrote a newspaper column that followed the adventures and misadventures of my family, as well as the musings and random thoughts of my complicated, simple mind. It was a study in contradictions, much ...