Sophie has reached the age where, every single day when I pick her up from school she asks, “Am I going on a play date? Can I have a play date? Is someone coming over? It’s been SO LONG (meaning three days) since I’ve had a friend come over!” and on and on. She goes […]
This year we traveled to Baltimore for a long Thanksgiving weekend with Grandma and Paw Paw, Aunt Lizzie and Great Aunt Fran. Thanks to the help of a second portable DVD player, the kids did well on the trip and it was so nice to be surrounded by family, especially family we don’t get to […]
Every year friends from, literally, all over the United States gather for the annual OSU Thanksgiving, which began 13 years ago as a full-fledged Thanksgiving meal served on a buffet table made out of boxes and a door in college housing. Our good friend Carrie Leonard is a freelance photographer and writer—these pictures belong to […]
I only get to see my brother Kyle a couple times a year. He lives in San Francisco where he’s a transportation planner with the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. He was in town for the holidays. As a child, it never occurred to me that someday, the chance for me and my siblings to […]
Last night, tired of folding laundry, I sat down on the floor of my bedroom, back against my bed, opened my laptop and looked. I looked at the pictures of those who lost their lives at Sandy Hook and I cried heavy, messy tears. I don’t know what’s right. I don’t know if it’s right […]
Now that we’ve moved Owen and James to twin beds, they’re no longer napping—but they still need to nap. And I need for them to nap. They’re exhausted. I’m exhausted. It’s been a fight-back-tears and escape-to-my-bedroom-to-hide-underneath-my-down-comforter-as-soon-as-Andy-gets-home two weeks. Today, in particular, was tough. James only spoke in whine. At first I tried to ignore it. […]
We lost Tucker for a couple hours yesterday. I felt terrible about it. I had let him out. He always barks when he wants back in. He never barked, though, so in the craziness of the day I didn’t think about letting him back in—I assumed I had let him back in. Late in the […]
Clearly, a wastebasket is just as much fun. Oh, and my gasp at the end? That was Owen running into the end table where I had (stupidly) placed a cup of water on top of Andy’s laptop. (Thankfully) nothing spilled. “The younger brother must help to pay for the pleasures of the elder.” —Jane Austen
After finding James perched on his crib rail, much like a bird on a tree limb, we decided it was time to put the boys in their twin beds. It’s going well. “Without enough sleep, we all become tall two-year-olds.” —JoJo Jensen
We often make bread in the bread machine. And mix milk and whipping cream together to make our own half-and-half. And we try, we really try, to never eat out but by never I mean at least once a week at around 6pm we look at each other, exhausted, and we look at the kids, […]
![The kiddos at First Unitarian Church are collecting books for students at South Avondale School to help fill the free bookstore our church sets up at the school regularly. If you have gently used or new books you'd like to donate, please let me know and I’ll come by and pick them up! We mostly need Pre-K/K (board books, concept books [ABCs, shapes], not lots of large hardcover picture books), early readers, early chapter books and blank journals. Because of the importance of children seeing mirrors of themselves in these books, diversity is key. Thanks!!](https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/vp/1b0de463b3b6651ce328e04c69eefb61/5DAF8772/t51.2885-15/e35/p320x320/65600510_490323258372040_2015424398939439067_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent.cdninstagram.com "The kiddos at First Unitarian Church are collecting books for students at South Avondale School to help fill the free bookstore our church sets up at the school regularly. If you have gently used or new books you'd like to donate, please let me know and I’ll come by and pick them up! We mostly need Pre-K/K (board books, concept books [ABCs, shapes], not lots of large hardcover picture books), early readers, early chapter books and blank journals. Because of the importance of children seeing mirrors of themselves in these books, diversity is key. Thanks!!")
