Every Christmas I make loaves and loaves and loaves of cinnamon bread. The first time I make it, the kids run to the kitchen like they just heard that Shawn Mendes was playing a concert in my stand mixer. (JK, my kids don’t know who Shawn Mendes is. But now that I think about it,
Last Saturday morning after breakfast we all piled on the couch to watch the end of Christmas Vacation, which we had started the night before. Anna got bored (sorry, Chevy Chase!) and wandered into the playroom. I glanced at her as she meandered over to a little set of blocks and started stacking them. She
One morning after breakfast, I was standing at the counter washing dishes and Anna crawled under the kitchen table. She looked up at the underside of the table and asked, “What’s this, Mommy?” I answered her broadly, not sure if she was asking about the base of the table or pointing at a screw or
When school started in September, Tom sat down with the kids and created a schedule for them. The hope was to reclaim some of the structure that had been lost in the floundering, chaotic months of the quarantine. The schedule includes a mandatory hour of outside time each day. Being the supportive spouse I am,
The other day a pile of Amazon packages were delivered to our front porch. (Prime Day, HEY!!) When I pulled the stack of cardboard boxes into our living room, the kids surrounded me, jumping in excitement to see what was inside, even though they already know that all we ever order are things like liquid soap
As I type this there’s a cup of Italian ice and a giant glass of water on the table beside me. I don’t want anything to do with either of them. I’ll put off the Italian ice a few more minutes, say I’m waiting for it to soften. That’ll buy me some time; maybe my
In the past few months, several of my friends have sent me this article: This family’s repeated strep throat infections frustrated their doctors To save you the click, it’s about a family who kept getting strep throat over and over and over, and they couldn’t figure out why. Eventually they discover that their CAT was the
A week or so ago we moved Anna into a big girl bed. Well, technically it isn’t a certified “big girl bed.” Technically it’s just a crib with the side off. This is a huge milestone and you might have guessed that I have an entire sappy post queued up about how, after so many
On the first day of school I woke up early to go for a bike ride. Ya know, nothing like a little early-morning exercise before the 11th plague descends on your house — virtual learning. While cycling, I took a wrong turn and ended up going down a big hill. Not a huge problem, except
This weekend we let the kids plan something to finish out the summer with a bang. They chose a backyard campout with s’mores. Then they threw in a night swim for good measure. I feel like our kids are still the age at which they definitely get excited for s’mores and night swimming and a