• Uncategorized

    You Can’t Take it With You… but also Some People are A-holes

    January 30, 2023 - By 

    One year ago, the 30th of January was a Saturday. Our oldest son had a basketball game, so Chris and I and the boys loaded up into his truck and started on our way. As we drove past our detached shop building (how we refer to the metal building that serves as a garage, workshop, and multi-purpose space), we noticed our wheelbarrow, lying tipped-over in the grass outside. The wheelbarrow that is usually stored inside our shop. We pulled up the driveway, opened the shop door, and peered inside. We had been robbed. Of course we did all the usual…

  • Throwback

    The Background Details

    January 23, 2023 - By 

    Sometimes the best parts of old photos are the stories they hide in the details. The stories that only the photographer and the photographed might remember. Take, for instance, this photo of me at our kitchen table, circa 1985 or 1986. I can still feel the padded vinyl of that checkered tablecloth. The doll? Her name was Polly and she was my absolute favorite. I lost her once in a grocery store and was rather inconsolable, until some nice lady found her and turned her into the manager. That cat ledge! What a thing that I took for granted as…

  • Uncategorized

    Staying Afloat

    January 11, 2023 - By 

    In college, I went through a phase. We’ll call this my Californian-college-girl phase. I was a blonde, tan, busty, sorority-girl lifeguard in California. I fit a stereotype, despite the fact that only one year prior I was an acid-washed jeans, tie-dye-wearing, brunette, American transplant living in France and studying the intricacies of the newly-minted European Union along with sixteenth century French literature. What can I say… your twenties is about finding yourself. Anyway, the point of this story is that I was a lifeguard for many years. I’ve always loved swimming, and since lifeguarding was a summer job, when school…

  • Family

    Grateful for what I have Gained

    November 16, 2022 - By 

    November is the month of Thanksgiving. Although I truly believe that gratitude should be practiced year-round, I like to practice it especially in November. November 16th also happens to be a significant day for me. It’s the day I re-discovered my potential. My health and fitness was – for many years- something I took for granted. I was a swimmer and a gymnast, a tree-climber and an outdoor adventurer, but I wasn’t what you would call “sporty.” I never liked the gym. I never liked running or rowing or competitive anything. But I stayed active in work and in life.…

  • Fun - Marriage

    The Gift that Keeps on Giving

    November 12, 2022 - By 

    For Mother’s Day this past May, the Husband gifted me a subscription to a “flower of the month” club. It works pretty much as you would expect – each month I receive a box. Packed inside is a flowerpot. At first it looks just like a pot of dirt, but with time and water the bulbs that are planted underneath emerge, revealing themselves and gracing our table with pretty blooms. The bulbs are chosen according to seasonality – Daffodils in April, for example – although I can’t easily identify them all because the packing slip does not provide any information…

  • Family - Fun - Parenting

    Yes Day!

    July 31, 2022 - By 

    Ever since I let the boys watch that Jennifer Garner movie, Yes Day, the boys have been begging to have one of their own. For the uninitiated, a “Yes Day” is when you pick one specific day that the parents can’t say no to any request the kids have. Now, there are some ground rules. There is a monetary budget. There are no requests to travel outside of the city (or a set radius of your choosing). And no requests that impact the future (for example, they can’t ask for a puppy). We laid the ground rules (most of which…

  • Family - Throwback

    Canoe Manoo

    April 29, 2022 - By 

    The Kansas City Zoo has a program to sell composted animal manure to the public. This program is called, aptly, “Zoo Manoo.” So you understand where I’m coming from with the title for this Flashback Friday blog post. Canoe Manoo: AKA The World’s Shittiest Canoe Float. The year was 2013. The Husband and I went up to Iowa to celebrate the 4th of July. Baby A-man took his first ever flight at just 5 months old. And then there was the canoe float. We had some friends from Arizona also fly to Iowa to celebrate the 4th, and participate in…

  • Family - Fun - Marriage - Parenting

    Camping… Sort of

    April 23, 2022 - By 

    Now that most of the major outdoor house projects are complete (**fingers crossed**), the husband and I have made a goal to spend some weekends going camping as a family. We really haven’t done this (with kids) but once, at a campground just a stone’s throw from our house in Iowa. It was amazing, and we stayed in a tent, but it wasn’t quite like true nitty-gritty camping. You can read about it here. Well, the weather looked to be warm, and we didn’t have any plans, so we decided this weekend was going to be our inaugural Missouri camping…

  • Family

    Hangers and Doorframes

    February 23, 2022 - By 

    You might think this post is about a house. Or maybe a clothes closet, or a hat rack by the front door. It’s not. Its about children. My oldest just turned 9, and my youngest is about to turn 7. They are growing like weeds, in a very measurable way: But they are also growing in so many immeasurable and almost-unrecognized ways. A while back I made a post on the Milestones that nobody tells you about, and here we have reached one of those again. Maybe someday I’ll look back on this post with a fondness. A sort of,…

  • Fun

    Fool me Once, Fool me Twice

    December 22, 2021 - By 

    Recently, the husband and I went on a date night in Weston, MO. If you’ve never been to Weston, it’s this cute little Hallmark-esque town on the outskirts of Kansas City. In fact, it’s so quaint that they even filmed an actual Hallmark movie there. But I digress. The point of that story is that our date night was organized by the Weston Chamber of Commerce (we took a tour of 3 of the local Bed and Breakfasts) and at the end of the tour, we received a gift bag filled with goodies from local establishments. To be clear (and…