Last year, right around this time of year, David sat down at the table with construction paper, scissors, and glue, and independently handcrafted a valentine for his best friend. I was really, really impressed. I hadn’t given much thought to the valentines he was going to give out to his class, but right then and
While on a walk a few weeks ago David noticed a bramble of blackberry bushes. The berries weren’t ready, the branches were covered in white flowers and tightly-packed clusters of green and pink, so we promised to come back in a few weeks. When we did, we found the bushes heavy with black, shiny berries.
On the first day of summer break we shared a big bowl of watermelon on the porch, then kids made a mud pit in the back yard while Anna and I sat on a blanket at a safe distance. When we got too hot and dirty, we all jumped in the pool. Before nap time,
This is Mary’s new iPhone. My niece made it, and it’s easily the most coveted item in our house. Everyone wants it but no one can touch it. After all, Mary has a data plan to consider. Mary uses it like a fully functional phone — she takes pictures, she texts, she FaceTimes my mom.
In the past year or so David has become increasingly interested in creating. He loves to draw, color, paint, cut, glue, and everything else. I love watching him, in part because a few years ago he didn’t like any of it — coloring, using stickers, or even playing with Play-Doh at all. Anytime I brought out
David’s preschool class has a stuffed narwhal as a mascot, and in just a few short months David has turned into quite the narwhal aficionado. As we were thinking about Christmas, David wanted to get a narwhal for his teachers. While I thought that was a great idea, there were just so many licenses and permits
Every year around this time I start to get an regular orders from my Etsy shop. (Which, side note, so impressive, right? There are people who are Christmas shopping ALREADY. In OCTOBER! I imagine these people also show up to places at the afore-scheduled time. And probably also clean their home’s windows.) As a result I start carrying knitting
My niece Psalm turned one a few weeks ago, and I made this countdown calendar for her. I got the pattern from The Sugar House Shop — it works like an Advent calendar, but you countdown to a birthday. I wanted to share it here because I am oh-so-very happy with how it turned out. I at all wasn’t confident when I
Growing up we always dyed Easter eggs on the night before Easter, so I planned to do the same thing with my kids. This year, I had meant to prepare by boiling the eggs and setting aside bowls and food coloring, but the whole thing completely slipped my mind. The whole thing slipped my mind
A few weeks ago I was filling out a preschool application for Mary Virginia. The application asked lots of questions to help the teachers get to know her, including some of her social and academic skills. One question asked which numbers she could recognize, and I wasn’t sure how to answer. Then I thought about