Mary Virginia doesn’t approve of my day-to-day look. T-shirt, ponytail, no makeup, usually un-showered. She’s kind about it, but she wouldn’t mind seeing me put a little more effort in my appearance. Maybe a clean shirt from time to time, a swipe of lip gloss wouldn’t kill me. It’s fine, I don’t pick anything that
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
So thankful we finally had a few warm days before Easter, so I could keep up with my six-year tradition of dressing my kids like rabbits and taking pictures in front of our neighbor’s landscaping. I actually had four pairs of bunny ears, even though I am completely realistic about this sort of thing —
Our first Christmas as a family of six was exactly as wonderful, memorable, and sleep-deprived as I expected. Reading the Christmas story before opening presents. The first peek at presents. Anna turned six weeks old the day before Christmas. Did you know that baby fussiness peaks at six weeks? Anna knew! We went to Christmas
Before Anna was born, I planned our Christmas card — a combo birth announcement/Christmas card with four kids in matching pajamas. Tom’s going to read that, wrinkle his forehead, and say, “You said you don’t have the brainpower to make a grocery list. But you’ve been strategizing our Christmas card for two months?” Yes, Tom,
UPS delivered my final package this morning. I did almost all of my shopping online this year, including stocking stuffers. I have only been in one store in the past month, and it doesn’t count because it was Target and it was mostly because I only had the baby with me and I wanted a
I am tired and thankful. And I think I brushed my teeth this morning. Today is Thanksgiving, and since our entire world was up-ended last week (in the best possible way), we’re staying home. Instead of making preparations for a Thanksgiving meal, I’m inside with Anna, watching the Macy’s Day Parade while Tom is outside
Discerning readers will notice that I already posted about Halloween night, so a post about all of our Halloween prep is out of order. But I cannot move on with my life without showing you the REST of our Halloween fun. I’m super pregnant. Tying on my shoes is a huge accomplishment, so imagine how
Way back in May when I found out I was going to have a baby in mid-November, I immediately thought through the calendar. It will affect Tom’s birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And then there’s Halloween. At 38 weeks, I wasn’t expecting to have a newborn, but I was expecting to be very big, very exhausted, and
It’s fall. Usually this is the time of year that I begin my campaign of reminding people that fall is awful. Guess what? I’m not going to do that! Even more evidence that I’ve matured a lot. There’s a lot of excitement in our family surrounding fall this year; David started school, we’re welcoming a new baby. And