Last night I faced two pretty big milestones that I didn't even know I had been avoiding. First, I walked into my old, favorite liquor store for the first time in over a year in a half. This was a place that I used to frequent quite often, multiple times a week. It was a big moment for me. I didn't even realize that I hadn't been in there for so long. It wasn't as if I had been purposely avoiding it, there was just no need to shop there. But yesterday, we wanted to grab a bot

I just put together my photo book for our Israel trip, and I felt so overwhelmed with joy by the end. I am sitting on the couch in my sunroom this morning listening to the birds again with my dogs snuggled up beside me. I am content to be home, except for this less than appetizing American coffee in my hand. I miss my Israeli coffee. My creamy cappuccino that I got at the elaborate breakfast spread the hotel put out every morning. There are so many little pieces of our trip t

Recently, I was asked a question that pertained to the idea of socializing for the first time in early sobriety. This came from a young mom of two kids who recently quit drinking, because she decided alcohol wasn't playing a healthy role in her life anymore. She wanted to know how to feel confident without feeling the buzz. "How do I get over the fear of hanging out with friends sober?"she asked. There is a lot of anxiety that surrounds this concept. We use alcohol to ease ou

Today I hit 600 days of sobriety. It's a pretty good number. We are still in Israel, and we have been on the go nonstop these last two weeks in Israel, and we have not slowed down or had much time to chill. We've been hustling from one place to the next to meet our tour guide, juggling to keep up with the jam packed schedule of sightseeing and hockey games. So, it has felt like less of a relaxing, beach vacation and more of a hectic, whirlwind trip. But it has been joyous, th

I have a lot of new visitors to my website and blog lately. Some of them ask - "Can I do this?" Absolutely. Yes you can. Many people are curious about what brought me to the point of not drinking. What made me want to quit? What made me find the courage to finally stop? Are you wondering how to take those first steps to actually do the damn thing? How the hell do you actually take the plunge and just fucking do it? Are you wondering that exact thing? Because it is scary as he

It has been almost a week now that we left Massachusetts. We have been traveling and on the go, and I haven't had a moment to sit down and reflect! We are in Israel for the Maccabi games - where my husband is playing hockey for two weeks. We have been in Tel Aviv this week and are headed to Jerusalem tomorrow. It has been an incredible experience thus far - full of exhausting days, lots of walking and a few eye opening challenges. Ultimately, I am grateful that I am sober for

Are you considering the path of sobriety, but suddenly you are flooded with memories from your shameful drinking past? So part of you sort of thinks, I may as well keep on drinking - I can never face what I have done. For a long time, I used to think it was easier to ignore those awful memories of the things I did while drinking by continuing to pour my glass of wine at night. That was how I forgot about how I made a fool of myself in front of my friends the weekend before, b

I can remember the way I often felt on July 5th. It was the day after a long, fun, exhausting weekend - a weekend full of endless drinking. I usually day drank from one day to the next - never allowing my hangover to fully sink in, and it was finally on this morning that I stopped to acknowledge how truly terrible I felt. I would look in the mirror and ultimately begin the arduous task of admitting that I was drinking a bit too much at this point in the summer. I would have a

The 4th of July is a big holiday with a lot of drinking for a lot of people. It signifies summer BBQs, fireworks, hanging out on the beach and along with all of that - alcohol is almost always involved. For someone who is trying to quit drinking, this holiday is a nightmare. It can feel like absolute torture. I remember last year was my first sober July 4th, but we were out of town for my sister's wedding. It was a rainy weekend, so it didn't feel like the typical BBQ, sit in

My 11 year old has a cell phone that works at home on wi-fi. (Perhaps, I should say HAD!) He used it to text with friends from school and play the occasional game. I put strict time limits on it and installed spyware to follow his conversations and stay on top of what we was doing. Every week he was bypassing my efforts to monitor his screen time. Either he was able to download new apps without me knowing it or figuring out the passcode and changing his allotted screen time.