To celebrate Anna’s birthday, I got one of those mylar number balloons that I see all over Instagram and blogs. They are completely unoriginal and #basic, but what the heck? They make for an excellent photo, everyone knows it. It was cloudy and rainy on Anna’s birthday, so I set up the balloon near a
I’ve spent the last few weeks feeling a bit sad, a bit in disbelief. Soon my fourth baby will turn one, and then she won’t be a baby anymore. Perhaps it will surprise no one at all to find out that I’m feeling very, very sentimental about this milestone. This time last year I was
Now that I’m an adult, I often think back to events from my childhood and I realize I never had any sort of appreciation for the work my parents did to make them happen. Pumpkin carving fits squarely in that category. Looking back to my own childhood, I do not remember my parents finding time
I’ve been blogging a ton this week — way more than I normally do. It’s because I feel a deadline looming to post everything from vacation, if I don’t do it this week, I never will. This is the last week of summer. In just a few days my two big kids will get on
After writing two kind of complain-y posts about our trip to a beautiful lake in a phenomenal house, I would be remiss if I didn’t say: our vacation was awesome. I love finding humor in mishaps and sleep deprivation, but those moments were honestly the exceptions. There was a lot of work, sure. We were
After our visit with my sister’s family, David stayed an extra week at my mom and dad’s for some extended cousin time. Maybe you read that sentence and thought, “Oh! How wonderful for David!” If that is the case, I need to warn you, you might not relate to the rest of this post. Here’s
Mary is, by far, my busiest child. She is always buzzing about preparing, arranging, collecting, and always, always talking. I cannot keep up. I try, but I have to be honest with myself about my physical limitations. I cannot breathe underwater, I cannot see into the future, I cannot wear my pre-pregnancy jeans. I cannot
It’s been nearly three years since my kids have seen my sister’s family. Three years is a long time if you’re (almost) seven. Or five. Or three. Or eight months. Ok, ok, it’s a long time if you’re 35, too. My sister and I both have four kids; two girls and two boys. Hers, ages
During wedding planning: Me, “We’ll get married on July 3 and we can call it Co-dependence Day!” Tom, hesitates then says, “Do you mean…Interdependence?” Tom Krieger, helping me with vocabulary and basic arithmetic since 2009. Our anniversary is July 3, and Tom gave me the only gift I ever want — he took a few
A few days before Easter, as soon as we had nice enough weather to be outside, we dyed Easter eggs. I marched all the kids outside and told them to sit at the table and wait while I made several trips inside to get everything. Asking kids to WAIT and NOT TOUCH is a big