About Me

I'm Amanda and the best and most important thing I've ever done is to be a good mom. Everything else I've ever accomplished is kind of silly, compared to the fact that I get out of bed every morning and I try, so very hard.

I have two daughters, Scout and Louise. They're three years apart and they keep me very busy. Sometimes I think I'll die of busy-ness, but I never do.

I used to be a misfit.

I was born in a small place with a God that was much too big for its britches. As I grew, I never felt right.

I think I tried to make myself as big as what was always looming, holy, holy, holy.

In reality, I was just a creative girl with too much noise inside, and without much to do with it.

I always knew the church stories about the end of the world weren't true, and I guess I was trouble for knowing all that. I guess girls weren't really supposed to know anything, not as long as Jesus had appointed the husband as the head of the household. Not as long as I wanted to be a wife, someday.

I didn't. Want to be a wife, I mean.



But, then I grew up, and now I am one... and do you know what? It's one of the best things I could ever dream of being.

I met my husband in college, in 1999. He was nineteen and I was 21. He was dating one of my dear friends and roommates. We were friends for a long time, and then we lost touch with one another for a few years. In 2004, we decided to drive together to another dear friend's wedding, from Pittsburgh to New Hampshire. By the end of the car trip, we were in love. At least that's how I see it. I told him he was going to marry me, someday. He might have tried to maintain his cool casual dating status, but I knew.

Within 5 months of dating, we were pregnant with our first amazing daughter, Scout.

She's all grown up, already.




Three years, a new house, a new car and a wedding later, we had our second beautiful daughter, Louise.

She's getting there.



So, now I'm a grown up. I never thought I would be good at being a regular person, but I'm figuring it out. I'm 32 years old, and not even freaking out about it. I love my thirties, so far. I love being a mom. I love not having the luxury of thinking about myself all the time.

I'm an avid stroller walker, bike rider and wooded trail hiker. Vegetarian. Aspiring cook. I read a lot. I love living in Pittsburgh. Despite it's reputation for being a gritty, working class city... it's beautiful and fun and there are lots of things to do with two girls who love exploring.

I guess you can pick up with my story there at Last Mom On Earth.