Abbey Roy

3 weeks ago | newarkadvocate.com | Abbey Roy

It’s summer in the Roy household, as far as the school calendar is concerned, and that means all of us — including the four-legged ilk — are settling into life at home for many hours, every day. We don’t have grand plans of boarding a Caribbean cruise, trekking the Appalachian Trail or even spending much time out-of-state, but as a family, we have talked about summer goals. One of those, which I have determined for myself, is to have a simplified summer.

1 month ago | newarkadvocate.com | Abbey Roy

It’s almost summer break and the kids are ready, but I don’t know if I’m ready, and I especially don’t know if the cats are ready. I’m a 12-year veteran of the work-from-home life, and during the day, it’s me and felines, the triple-threat dream team: Me, the two-legged jack-of-all-trades; Sherlock, Mr. Bites the Hand that Feeds Him; and Milo, part madman, part angel — never know which you’re getting.

1 month ago | newarkadvocate.com | Abbey Roy

There’s a thing called FOMO. Have you heard of it? “Fear Of Missing Out.”FOMO was the real reason it took me so long to take the weeklong hiatus from social media that I did recently, but I would do it again with much less hesitation.

1 month ago | newarkadvocate.com | Abbey Roy

It's Mother’s Day, and it’s supposed to be a day when kids make their moms cards and bring them slightly undercooked pancakes in bed and promise not to fight for at least a morning, and those things are such a perfectly imperfect testament to the vocation of motherhood, whatever that looks like for each of us.

1 month ago | newarkadvocate.com | Abbey Roy

I spent several vitamin D-soaked hours recently cleaning up messes in the yard, which Fall Abbey left behind, knowing that Spring Abbey is traditionally the more ambitious of the lot and that long-dead green bean vines are much easier to pry from a grid of wire than live ones. She’s a smart one, Fall Abbey.