Claire Bidwell Smith

This week I've been giving some thought to how I've been conducting my life. I've come to realize that I've been spending a lot of time analyzing how I'm going about things, and trying desperately to figure out a way to balance it all. Most days I feel like I can't breathe, like I'm just Read more…

I've had an incredible couple of days. It feels like I just got home from an amazing trip. And, in a lot of ways, I kind of just did. I spent the better part of Monday and Tuesday this week running around Chicago with three other bloggers, Courtney Kendrick (who I'm TOTALLY smitten with), Jamie Read more…

The other day I attempted to save a bird that was hit by a car. I wrote about it for The Nervous Breakdown: How Stopping to Save a Bird Might Just be the Best Thing That Happened to Your Monday This morning I watched a bird fly into a car in front of me and Read more…

It's a been a hectic week for me. I'm teaching a volunteer training all week, which involves working nights and putting in extra hours and not being here to put Veronica to bed (which always makes me wistful). Work is nothing but a challenge these days. It's so hard to balance my home life and Read more…

I've been a bad blogger lately. There are several reasons behind this, but even they're good ones I still feel like I've got some work to do, some repairs to make, maybe even some apologies to write. This past June marked seven years since I've been blogging. That's a long time! When I first started Read more…

I feel like I owe my blog an apology. I have been completely checked out lately. It's taken all I can muster to get posts out regularly these past few weeks. Even right now, writing this entry was the last thing on a to-do list that included some pretty annoying stuff. But here I am. Read more…

She Wrote, He Wrote is back! And just in time for Veronica's six month birthday!   *If you're not familiar with She Wrote, He Wrote, it's a blog that Greg and I created in 2008. Organized into a he said, she said format, we both write about the same experience, usually from very different perspectives. Read more…

A couple of things. First of all, you can now reach this blog using www.lifeinchicagoblog.com. Look at that. A real url. The typepad one still works but the new one is a bit more professional, or something. It's funny, I feel like I've come a long way. When I first started blogging 6 years ago Read more…

I thought I'd link up a few of my favorite blogs today. They're all pretty much parenting blogs, but each of a really high caliber. And I'm always interested in other good blogs, so if you have suggestion for sites I can add to my daily rundown, I'd love to hear about them. Neal Pollack's Read more…

Dear Bug, It's no secret that your Dad and I met online. I was living in LA and he was here in Chicago. We were both writers for a literary website called The Nervous Breakdown. We struck up a correspondence that eventually led to us meeting, which quickly led to us rearranging our lives to Read more…