I’m “That Mom” Who Eats the Candy and Calls It Healing

National Candy Day | Everyday Sillybrations | 11.04.20

Life’s Sour Stretches

I love candy. And sweets. And it’s not always been a big part of my life in the way it is now.

Because life has had some sour stretches. Depression. A suicide attempt in high school. Divorce. Becoming a single mother of two during the pandemic. Several surgeries, including spinal and rotator cuff surgeries within a year of each other. Those things leave marks. They change how you move through the world. There were stretches where sweetness felt unrealistic, unnecessary, or like something other people were allowed to have.

And yet, maybe that sour is what gives sweetness its flavor. Candy, tiny victories, moments that make you pause. They don’t land the same without knowing the other side of it.

Finding Sweet in the Sour

The sour of my divorce led me back to one of the sweetest parts of my life. I reconnected with my childhood friend Tanya, someone I had lost touch with back in elementary school. Now we call each other sisters. We’ve co-parented our kids from afar, leaned on each other through hard days, and laughed in ways I didn’t know I still could.

I’ve told her before that if neither of us had gotten divorced, we probably wouldn’t have found our way back to each other. And honestly, that thought makes me more sour than the divorce ever did.

Everyday Sillybrations: A Permission Slip

That’s how I came up with Everyday Sillybrations. Random holidays, some obvious, some ridiculous. It started because I wanted to show a little light in social media feeds during a time that felt really dark. I started with the minis, but honestly, mostly I did it for me.

I used to say, “everyday there is one reason to celebrate,” and over time, I’ve learned that’s true. Everyday Sillybrations became my permission slip to reclaim sweetness after acknowledging the sour. Sometimes it literally got me up off the floor when everything felt heavy, when I felt helpless. Friends would remind me: get up, get ready, go live, or at least post before midnight. And it still counted. Big for me.

The Really Obscure Holidays

Sure, there are holidays that are easy to tie back to sweet. National Candy Day. National Milk Chocolate Day. National Good and Plenty Day. But the really obscure ones had their own kind of magic.

Like Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day, when a friend suggested Johnny Cash’s “Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart” as my inspiration. I used a rocking horse toy from Lil Gent’s old nursery and Mini Stylist’s tiny doll toilet as props, because obviously I’m a method actor. Minus the acting.

Or Bagpipe Appreciation Day, when I made a bagpipe out of a straw, a plastic grocery bag, my Hello Kitty duct tape, and a recorder. Then I taught myself My Heart Will Go On and performed it live on social because a friend asked me to. Yes, that happened. And yes, I committed fully.

Layered Sweetness, Except Milk Duds

Looking back, sweetness is layered. Like cake. Candy and silly celebrations, quiet triumphs, small moments that don’t look impressive but matter anyway. The kind of joy that’s a little messy, a little chaotic, and doesn’t need to be justified or cleaned up to count.

Both the sweet and the sour. Except for Milk Duds. There’s a “sour” story with that, but it’s also tied to one of the sweetest things too. More on that later. It deserves its own candy wrapper.