Hey all! I am Katy Ursta married to my college sweetheart for 12 years, a mom of two boys, and a stage four cancer survivor. I started writing as a way of coping with my diagnosis, but found the more I shared about cancer, the more universal cancer became, and the more connected I felt to others and the less isolated I felt through the struggle. I own a virtual health and wellness company and commit to helping my clients find a deeper motivation to fight for their own health.
When I am not in the stands of my sons' hockey games, I am usually found folding the never ending piles of laundry, looking for the matching sock, breaking up hockey fights, or (let's just be honest) with my hand buried in the bag of chocolate, asking the question, "what do you want for dinner?" You can find more of my work on instagram @katy_ursta or on my website, katyursta.com
Dear Grandma and Grandpa, Time! The indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole. Time spent at work, time spent on you, time spent with friends, time spent with family, time spent with children and grandchildren. Time is limited and goes by fast. Often you make time for what is important to you. When people spend time together it yields connections and memories that last a lifetime. I agree with Lee Christopher who said, “There’s only one thing more precious than our time and that’s who we spend it on.” Please...
Trigger warning: abuse My first awareness of your problem with drinking came from the blowout that ended with you going to jail and your divorce from my mother. My older sister, always employing some new tactic to convince you to stop smoking said, “You better stop smoking cigarettes, or you’ll die just like Grandma did.” Your mother smoked her whole life and died from emphysema. You took it very hard. In fact, Mama says that’s when the drinking got a lot worse. You rampaged drunkenly over this comment, trying to whip her for saying it. You still tell us to...
Just a few miles down the road from our farm is a dairy farm. Just like us, they sell beef. And just like us, the kids of the farm spend many sweltering summer hours picking sweet corn to sell to our local community. You’d think we might be in direct competition with one another. In fact, at one point the community thought we were feuding because we had differing political signs at the end of our driveways. We all laughed as our two-red-light town wrongly speculated. We had no squabble with one another. Politics isn’t worth dividing our friendship and...
Trigger warning: suicidal thoughts I sat in my recliner to go to sleep in the usual fashion, but it rarely came quickly. I had managed to hide from everyone that I slept in my leather recliner holding my infant son every night. It wasn’t anything new—I had done the same with my daughter. It was a weird routine and anything short of “normal.” I had two pillows under my legs, a Boppy pillow under my arms, a travel pillow around my neck and a blanket across me. I would put his Owlet sock on for good measure, even knowing the...
No one told me that at almost 45 years old I was going to experience being ghosted by my best friend. Someone I met when our girls were babies, when I clicked with that mom who was in the thick of motherhood like I was. The friend who I joked we’d buy a house with our two other friends and be “Golden Girls” even if our husbands were still alive and kicking. This friend was always there for me with her long cards, thoughtful overflowing baskets after a surgery or a sniffle, personalized and monogrammed gifts, and she constantly told...
When John and I first became grandparents 15 years ago, we were obviously younger, more energetic, less tired, younger, quicker to get out of a chair when the need arose, ready to learn how to unbuckle every contraption the kids could harness our grandkids into, and did I mention younger? But we were still working, John wasn’t able to be at the hospital for the first six babies’ arrivals, time with them wasn’t as easily available, and daytime visits with the grandkids had to be scheduled around work hours, even on weekends. Because John was in the food industry, time...
Hardships. Challenges. Trauma. Most of us can say we have experienced these things in some shape or form. It can feel like you get lost in the midst of trying to just survive and get through. These things can stick with you long after you think you’ve moved past it, and sometimes they will sneak up on you when you least expect it. It can feel like your life is just the things you’ve been through. Those hard, scary, bad things life has thrown at you. But I want to tell you that you are so much more than your...
Can we talk about my hair? From one side it’s normal . . . the other, it’s best described as bold. Strange thing to talk about right? Yet it’s really not and here’s why: people judge me on it. I’m at a place in my life where whispers don’t bother me much. However, I’m also in a place that I have an image to uphold. As an elected official, sadly, you’re judged not always by how well you do your job but also by your appearance. I found a picture months ago of a haircut I LOVED, but it took me...
I didn’t want to go to church. I had to get a baby and a toddler across the base to the chapel on my own. Then I had to greet people I hardly knew, plastering a smile over my depression. Church meant exerting as much energy as I could muster, only to sit in the mothers’ room alone with my kids, which is what I would have been doing at home. But I went. As expected, I ended up in the mothers’ room, nursing the baby while preventing the toddler from destroying hymnals. RELATED: To the Distracted Mom at Church:...
I should start by explaining most of my mom friends work outside the home or from home now, and they’re killing it! Not only do they impress me with their strength and skills, they’re also showing their kiddos what ambition looks like, and I’m so inspired by all they manage to juggle and achieve. The point is, all of us mamas have some big things in common—we all love our kiddos something fierce, we all do what needs to be done to take care of our families, and we all work around the clock. But my stay-at-home mom routine looks different...
By Katy Ursta 
by Jaime Elwer 
by Summer Tocci 
by Sarah Philpott 
by Vicki Bahr 
by Moriah Couch 
by Holly Lemons 
by Kyleigh Dunn 
by Jaclyn Warren 
