Loving the Arizona summers does not come easily, at least for me. While the rest of the country is basking in glorious weather we're experiencing intense heat that can feel oppressive. But last year I decided that I needed to try harder to embrace desert summers. To do that I set out to make summer cozy. And this year, after reading The Little Book of Hygge (pronounced "hoo-gah"), I've tried to think of what people in northern climates do during the winter and then give it a summer spin. I made a lot of progress toward finding hygge during the... Read more →

I had strong thoughts about how we'd handle screen time with our kids even before I was pregnant. I'd love to share an update on how we're handling screen time with the boys. In short, they get very limited screen time and our approach is essentially as I imagined it would be. Among my in-person and online friend circles my sense is that our family is among those that have the most restrictive screen time rules with their kids. I wanted to share our approach to screen time not to make anyone feel guilty about the screen time their kids... Read more →

I'm overdue for a roundup of things I want to remember about the boys. Right now my boys are 4 years old and 2 years old and this is what I want to remember: The way Cedric always has a song in his heart. He'll be chattering along and then burst into song as if it was the natural next part of the conversation. In current rotation: "Finkle, finkle little tar," "Hello, how do you do?" "Baby shark, do doo, do doo doo," and "Five little ducks went out one day..." I've often told him that he has a song... Read more →

When Chris and I have a date night planned I find the time leading up to the date night a tiny bit stressful. We're trying to get the house tidy, prep the boys' dinner, get pajamas out, and get ready ourselves. On top of that the boys started getting clingy and emotional when we would leave them with a babysitter. A crying child is not the ideal way to start a fun and relaxing date night. Enter: the snack pack. Based on the logic that a little treat can go a long way with toddlers and preschoolers, we started putting... Read more →

Tracking our spending assiduously, including my own personal allowance spending, continues to be so satisfying. I'm finding it easy in some ways to stick (pretty much) to my budget of $100 of personal allowance spending per month, but hard in other ways. There are SO! MANY! things I want to buy during the month. By sharing my purchases at the end of the month I might make it look easy to stick to a personal allowance budget but please know that it is not without plenty of restraint! I've noticed that I'm especially bombarded with "wants" scrolling through Instagram or... Read more →

I love noting the four seasons throughout the year, and perhaps even more so as I get older. And while technically the first day of summer comes to Arizona on the same day it does to the rest of the northern hemisphere it always seems to be very summery by late June. Which all means that May is when I need to start gearing up for the HEAT and SUN of summer. Last summer was my most enjoyable Arizona summer yet. I think I'm finally figuring out how to embrace the summer heat. Frose helps. As does remembering that it... Read more →