Five years ago this month, my first book debuted. A book tour followed, with stops in Nashville, Tennessee; Kansas City; Oklahoma City; and the small town that inspired the book—Chickasha, Oklahoma. Lip Reader is a work of fiction, but the story has some true elements. The main character, Sapphie, is a reflection of me as … Continue reading
Tagged with Shanna Groves …
I Will Miss You, Maya
Weeks after my second child was born, I was in the throes of a horrible postpartum depression. Something motivated me to pick up a copy of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the memoir of author and poet Maya Angelou. In the book, Maya shares about growing up in racially segregated Arkansas and how … Continue reading
The True Story of How Show Me Your Ears Began
The birth of Show Me Your Ears took place in my minivan. While sitting in the car outside my hearing aid provider’s office last year, I reeled with painful emotions. A hearing test revealed my deepest fear: I had lost more hearing. Worse yet, the hearing aids I wore were no longer powerful enough to … Continue reading
Do You Have a Fear of Failure?
I recently read a story about a woman who was afraid to jump off a cliff as part of a thrill-seeking group activity. The thought of jumping off anything, let alone a cliff, sends terror chills down my spine. You can read the story here. Since childhood, I have had a fear of leaping off … Continue reading
Letter to My Childhood Sunday School Teacher
This Easter, I want to recognize a particular teacher I knew as a kid. Miss Ann and I attended a country church in Oklahoma during the early 1980s. She was the first Sunday school teacher I can remember from my childhood. There may have been others, but Miss Ann taught me in a plain-spoken way. … Continue reading
Is A Cure for Hearing Loss Possible? An Interview with the Hearing Health Foundation
When the Hearing Health Foundation approached Lipreading Mom about doing a story about curing hearing loss, I admit I was skeptical. Is a cure really possible? And if it is, would it benefit those who have embraced their deafness? I have many friends who haven’t been able to hear all their lives, and they lead … Continue reading
Book Giveaway: Celebrate the One-Year Anniversary of My Memoir
“I was already eager for the hospital stay to end. No more visiting nurses asking me soft-spoken questions that the ringing noise (in my ears) wouldn’t let me hear.” -Chapter One, Confessions of a Lip Reading Mom One year ago, I published Confessions of a Lip Reading Mom. The book shares the six years of … Continue reading
Is It Okay to Ditch Hearing Aids?
Lipreading Mom has taken up a new hobby: sewing. It may be all the snow days lately have inspired this newfound passion for stitching pillows, aprons, and anything that a needle and thread can create. I’ve spent a lot of days at home, tending to these projects. Sewing is a calming hobby for me because … Continue reading
I Just Want to be a Wife and Mom
The words flew out of my mouth in between pneumonia-induced coughs. “I’m tired of trying to do everything perfectly. Writing. Speaking. Volunteering. I just want to be a wife and mom.” Wait, did I really commit myself to something here, something purely domestic and…simple? From childhood, I wanted to be lots of things. Writer. Actress. … Continue reading
What I Learned on My 40th Birthday
Happy New Year, friends! The holidays brought lots of celebrating in the Lipreading Mom house, including three birthday parties. One of those parties was mine. Now that I am a young 40 years old, I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with the rest of my life (and what I don’t). Can you … Continue reading
Lipreading Mom 