My previous cat Maia used to relax very strangely on chairs. Visit this post to see the pictures then pop on back here: Home Decor I thought this was weird. But apparently, all cats are weird? Or maybe just mine. Because Phoebe does the exact same thing: Forget the cat beds or fancy cat houses, give her a people chair and she’s all set. (If you look closely at the image above, you’ll see the china dishes – the ones that survived the bowling ball incident – safely stowed away.
I turned four decades old today. I don’t feel 40. Mostly. I’m still the same person I was at twenty only I’m not interested in after-hours nightclubs and my knees pop every time I sit down. But you know, same. This is my forty, in all its brutal honesty: I wear wrist braces at night to keep my carpel tunnel at bay. I need compression socks and blood thinning medication. I wear contact lenses and slather on wrinkle creams. I consider Netflix and a glass of wine to be a fun Friday night. But here’s the thing. This is also…
My oldest boy has a white noise machine in his room, to help him sleep. It has a large selection of sounds that can be played as background noise: static, ocean waves, frogs, music, etc. The one and only sound that he will let me play is: crickets. So he goes to sleep listening to the soothing chirps of crickets every night. Well, it’s late summer in the Midwest, and the actual crickets are EVERYWHERE. Last night, the kid came into my room at 4am. “Mom,” he says, rubbing his eyes, “I can’t sleep.” “Why?” “There’s a cricket in my…
When we lived in Arizona, Chris was often out of town for work, so the boys and I managed on our own. At the time that I wrote this post (below), I was just grateful for the act of kindness. And now, with a few years’ reflection, I also hope that I set the same example of kindness for my sons that this lady did for hers. Be a good human. Raise good humans. That is all. Here is the story: This evening I walked out of the Costco with my 3 year old, my 1 year old, and a…
We’ve got two Robot vacuums, and we have named them Billy and Winston. Winston works downstairs, while Billy has the main level. Poor Billy really has his work cut out for him: between the cat toys and the LEGO, we’ve had to replace his brushes many, many times. Want to know who wins in a battle between a Roomba and a LEGO? Not the Roomba. They have an app, which gives us notifications like, “Billy is stuck,” “Winston’s bin is full,” or “Billy has successfully completed a job.” But they do a pretty good job, despite their obstacles and the…
The boys are getting a treehouse, and since the goats did some of the preliminary work, now we’ve got to finish clearing a nice spot for their treehouse. So we spent a good portion of the weekend after the goats were gone cleaning up: trimming tree branches, moving logs, picking up sticks, and raking the ground. That following week, the tree house got built. I’m not too old to hang out in a treehouse, right?!
Today I put a load of Connor’s clothes in the dryer. Something was banging against the tumbler and we were taking bets as to whether it was rocks or LEGO. Turns out, we were all right.
One summer when I was fourteen, I decided I wanted to stretch out my school break indefinitely. Make it feel as endless as possible. And I did, actually, succeed. Bike rides, tree-climbing, and nature hikes. Books, board games, ice cream, campfires, swimming, and beaches. Even though there wasn’t actually more time in my summer, I tried to savor every moment, and it felt longer. It was glorious. I have never quite re-created the magic of that one summer, yet it sticks with me to this day. It’s what I want for my children. The truth is it feels like a…
We have quite a bit of Poison Ivy in our backyard tree grove. I am highly allergic. This makes me not want to hang out in our beautiful creek area. But when you have it carpeting the ground like grass, taking over small bushes, and winding its way up trees in arm-sized vines, the task of getting rid of it seems daunting. Where would one even start in eradicating this invasive vine? As it turns out, the answer is: This year I learned that you can rent goats. In case you’re curious, goat rental is priced by the acre, and…
I love grocery shopping. It’s my happy place. I like planning the meals and making the list and then just wandering down the aisles putting things in my cart. I like listening to the music and muttering to myself over which avocado is the ripest. I even liked grocery shopping with the kids, for a while. Until we reached one of those Milestones Nobody Talks About: when they were old enough that nobody wanted to ride in the cart anymore and they spent the entire time running around like feral animals and touching all the things. Or, this. So let…