Mary started the Christmas season feeling overly burdened by the season, what with being a “Mary” and all. As if sharing a name with the Virgin Mother of the Savior wasn’t enough, her name is also a homophone with the salutation of the season: MERRY. She makes it look easy, but believe me, it is not.
Christmas morning anticipation — Tom gathers the kids on the stairs to read the Christmas story before rushing down to see presents. Before you get distracted by David and Mary’s looks of concentration, Thomas’s impish grin, or noticing that this is the first year Anna isn’t being held by one of us — before you
The 52 Project: A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2019. (Alternate project title: The 52 Project: A mother frantically scrolling her camera roll on Saturday to see if she happened to take a picture of each of her children in the past week.) David / When it’s pajama day at school
We spent nearly a week with my parents over Thanksgiving. My parents still live in the house I grew up in, and anytime we go back, my kids ask lots of questions about my childhood. Where was my room, which was my seat at the table, where did we play. (Answer: the room you guys
I haven’t blogged in the past few weeks, because I haven’t been doing much of anything in the past few weeks. Anything besides knitting, that is. I’ve been frantically filling Etsy orders for Christmas, and this year has felt more stressful than other years. It’s not because I had an influx of order, I think
Mary is on a crusade to make homemade gifts for all of her family members. Also all of her friends, classmates, people she rides the bus with, and she’ll throw in a free Christmas gift to anyone who signs up for Disney + before the end of 2019. She’s so ambitious and excited about it,
This morning I took Thomas and Anna outside. I was planning on cleaning out the garden and adding compost to the soil. I thought Thomas might like helping with raking and digging, but as soon as we went outside he and Anna immediately started playing on their own. That was fine, too, but I still
Most families don’t talk about this, but there is usually one family member that takes up most of the energy and patience. Sometimes it’s the oldest, sometimes it’s the toddler, sometimes it’s the mom. For the past month, it’s been the almost-two-year-old. It happened out of nowhere. One day I was talking with Tom’s mom
A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2019. We are finishing up birthday week here. We ate the last of Anna’s birthday cake for lunch, and Tom’s birthday cupcakes for snack. The week started warm, and then it snowed, and then it stayed freezing and I gathered the children for a
There are a great many traditions I started when I had my first baby. Almost none of them have lasted through the fourth (R.I.P. baby book intentions) Some things I’ve mostly given up on (R.I.P. baby book intentions) and other things I haven’t gotten around to, but I still hold out hope (like making a