How My Life Has Changed

Post-divorce daily life, self-care, holidays, and more

I’m Haley. Book midwife (editor) and author. Consider upgrading to a paid subscription to support this work and gain access to exclusive content:

Hello to new faces around here and a huge thank you to all the subscribers who upgraded to paid. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have this Substack financial boost as I stare down a refinance of my house now that my divorce is finalized. As you can imagine, it’s been a very stressful few months and your support is very VERY appreciated.

For brand new folks, I’m Haley: author, podcaster, and mom of four great kids ages 6-15. I live in my hometown of Tallahassee, FL where I work remotely as an editor of children’s books.

Life has changed dramatically over the past seven months after a very sudden separation from my high school sweetheart and husband of 18 years. Traumatic? Yes. But I’m hanging in there. The other night I saw my high school choral director who is now one of my kids’ choral directors.

“How are you doing?” he asked, gently.

“I’m….somehow doing really well.”

“It’s me, Haley. You don’t have to pretend to be okay.”

“I know! But…I’m really doing okay. Truly.”

While life has been quite up and down, I’m not just putting on a brave face. And I’m pretty sure it’s not simply because the shock hasn’t worn off yet. I think it’s all your prayers.

But life is certainly different. In a thousand ways.

I thought I’d share some of what that looks like, partly because my teenage son said, “will you thank the Substack people and let them know that we’re doing okay?”

So here’s a short post about daily life, the self-care that’s been helpful for keeping me afloat, what the holidays are looking like this year, and various other things.

Where to begin, friends? I’m trying to figure out the difficult balance of being a writer who processes through the written word and a mother who wants to protect her children’s privacy. So I’m focusing on my experience of it all.