Thanks so much!

Thank you very much to everyone who has purchased a book so far! I couldn't be more pleased with how things have gone. I wrote this book for a number of reasons, the biggest being so that when mommy brain plus age transforms my memory into a sad, deflated balloon I will be able to recall the stories I want to tell my kids over and over again. (Especially when I want to get on their nerves! Hey - payback is a witch, girls!)
Also, I wanted to give tired, struggling moms out there a laugh. Even more than that, I hope that someone out there will read about what I've been through and realize that they are not alone in the mother "hood." That sounds so silly - none of us was the first to have a baby or struggle with the monumental job of raising short people who act just like us. But motherhood can make you feel very, very isolated at times.
I really struggled with whether to share my experience with "postpartum" depression. I write it that way because after the birth of my kids was certainly not the first time in my life I had dealt with depression. It just catapulted it to a whole other level. Admitting to the world that you have struggled with this or that is a very personal and private thing, and I wasn't completely sure that I wanted to be so transparent. But I felt like it was important, if for no other reason than to hope that someone will read about my experience and find the courage to deal with their own issues.
Here's my attempt at a motivational speech: You are not alone. You are not the first or the last person to deal with depression or whatever is troubling you. You WILL make it through it. Time does not heal all wounds. That is a crock. Time makes some things easier, and then there are some hurts that will never, ever become less painful. Those are the things that require you to dig deep down inside and find a way to go on.
I have learned that life is full of spectacular highs and devastating lows. Learning to really live somewhere in the middle has been my biggest challenge. Each day when I wake up, I pray a prayer of thanksgiving for all of the joy and the blessings in my life. That's a fairly recent habit for me, and I can't say enough about the difference it makes in my outlook on things. Here's hoping all of your lives are filled with more laughter than tears.