The Kid suggested yesterday that we leave out cookies and milk for Santa. We have always told him that Santa is a story, but he loves pretending. (This morning: “I heard Santa on the roof last night!”) By bedtime, he had forgotten about the milk and cookies, but we left out a plate with crumbs … Read more
The Climbing Daddy suggested a few weeks ago that over winter break, maybe we should paint the living room. I was very excited about this! As far as I’m concerned, the best reason to own instead of rent is to be able to paint real colors. Most of our house is still need-to-sell-it tan. We … Read more
My school district does something at the beginning of each year for staff, to try to give us a common inspirational thing that in theory would carry through the year but rarely lives for more than a week or two. This year, we were each to engrave a word on a “my intention” bracelet. It … Read more
In April, I volunteered at an event at the rock climbing gym where I’m a member. It was a bouldering event (short walls, no ropes) which is not something that I had done at all, but there were all sorts of fun, silly climbing (taller walls, with a rope) stations as well—one-handed, an obstacle course, … Read more
…I’ve wanted to love it. It just sucked. My mom’s love language must be gifts (based on things more than just Christmas). There were always piles of stuff for my brother, sister, and I to open, each in a different color paper. My earliest Christmas memory, I was 7 or 8. We had ripped through … Read more
Yesterday, I published a post that ended with a question asking about your experience. I’ve asked a similar question a few times. This is the thing: I’m really curious about the answer. I’d love to take every single reader out for coffee for a few hours and pick your brain about random things like yesterday’s … Read more
I am a recovering perfectionist. For a long time, everything had to be just right. Edit, erase, start over. Make sure there’s always a straight-edge handy. No streaks, no cracks, no chips. I realize this is fear-based. I’m better about it. I don’t spend an hour carefully curating which font I’m going to use on … Read more
There’s a new-to-my-awareness probably-MLM line of products being hawked in my Facebook feed. “Total makeover. Only takes 10 minutes!” But you know what? I like my face. Some days, I have bags under my eyes, because I’m tired. Some days, I’m exhausted and have full-blown suitcases. I’m at the point where I have creases in … Read more
We need to change some of our language surrounding food. I do my best not to use the words “good” and “bad” when talking about food. Except when something doesn’t pass the sniff test. Then it’s bad. “Good” could describe tastiness, it could describe healthiness, it could describe virtuousness. We’ve made some unfortunate connections between … Read more
The creeping crud is creeping around here. The Kid has missed two days of school. I’m just starting to get a little stuffy. The Climbing Daddy has been coughing a bit. This afternoon, The Kid and I needed something a little different. So we took coloring sheets and colored pencils out back on the porch, … Read more