(My blog host, Typepad, is having some issues and photos aren't loading. Hopefully I can add photos soon!) It's cloudy, blustery, and chilly today – delightful! Hello, November indeed! We had a fun Halloween on Monday night with the cutest little kitty and two deathly ghoul boys. Chris and I dressed up as a PB&J! We trick or treated with neighbor friends for part of the evening. Then, winding our way home, the boys I did a long loop by ourselves. There had been some big emotions and costume frustration just before we left the house as there always is... Read more →

We really love the green-pink combo. It's September, we're settling into routine, and I have one foot into fall while also feeling grumpy about the persistent heat. Sounds about right! In August we saw the completion of all the big house updates we've been doing, whew! Having the entire interior of the house painted took about two weeks and was unfun to live through (but not as bad as getting new flooring!). I love the way our paint colors look with our new flooring and the overall fresh, calm look. When the noise and energy of the house feel chaotic... Read more →

Recently I've been thinking about the joy that hobbies bring me and asking myself how I can lean into that joy even more. In particular I'm thinking about my hobbies of reading and exercising. I suppose someone might wonder why I didn't include writing and podcasting as hobbies and it's because I don't think of them as hobbies but instead as my work. My writing and podcasting have expectations tied to them, both from myself and from readers and listeners. Reading, exercising, and other hobbies are things I do purely for myself. What I've realized is that when a hobby... Read more →

Costumes for 2021: a Minecraft character for Dash, a last minute costume change into an improvised zombie for Cedric, and a dinosaur for Maeve. She has the cutest dino hoodie but didn't want to wear it. / Halloween High Fitness with my friends who were the most amazing Barbies! / our grilled Halloween pizza that turned out a little ugly but was completely delicious I had the realization this week that November 1st kicks of my favorite, best four months of the year. From now through the end of February we have great outside-every-day-weather, there's the holiday hubbub and then... Read more →

Usually I'm a glass half-full kind of gal but lately it's been easier for me to see what's not working rather than what's going really well. A recent post by Sarah reflecting on what's great versus what's hard inspired me to write my own reflection. When one or a few things are hard in life I can use that paintbrush to color everything. Taking a step back to be more precise about what's hard and, importantly, what's not hard helps me to stop globalizing. Challenging + Very limited time to work or "time off." Essentially I feel like I'm trying... Read more →

accidentally twinning with my girl / perfect spring evening in our backyard / spontaneous afternoon ice creams and the giant "singles" from Handel's Ice Cream Hello May! Our front and back yards are full of spring and it's bringing me joy. Our palo verde trees are bursting with yellow blooms and have blanketed our front yard in yellow. I spend time every day just watching our trees and the gently falling blossoms. I hung a new bird feeder in one of the trees and am hoping to attract goldfinches. Over the past two weekends we've brought home new plants to... Read more →

Inspired by... creating content for my RISING*SHINING audioblog and the lovely comments I've received from listeners. Thank you! My goal this year was to produce audioblog content for the months of April and October but now I'm wondering if I can keep it up regularly. I'm not ready to fully commit to that but I'm percolating the idea. Purchased... summer capsule wardrobe items like another pair of my favorite Patagonia quick-dry shorts, two tank tops, and swim shorts. I also bought the percale sheets from Brooklinen I've been eyeing for awhile. I am obsessed with them! They're soft yet cool... Read more →

There's a phenomenon at our house that, despite our best efforts to ward it off, appears most weeks. We call it...Thursday house. Thursday house is dirty dishes at the sink, baskets of laundry waiting to be folded, and the boys in-progress art projects laying across the breakfast table. It's a package that needs to be returned parked on our dresser and looking in the fridge to find few options for packing a school lunch. The boys' dirty clothes are in the bathroom, looking like they stepped right out of them and into the bath, which is exactly what they did.... Read more →

Chris takes a break from his backyard office to catch up with Maeve and me It's time for another stay-at-home check in and I wonder if this could be my last one, or maybe second to last. Although life is not completely back to "normal" I do feel that we are leaving the season of staying at home behind. The boys are in school, Chris and I are both fully vaccinated, and generally we're feeling less worried about COVID-19 although we are still staying home for the most part. I'm feeling very optimistic that the increasing rate of vaccinations will... Read more →

A question I'm often asked is how the transition has been from being a full-time working mom to being an at-home parent. As I started to write this post I realized I have a lot to say. I thought about breaking this up into a few posts but instead I'm going to leave it as one giant post so all my thoughts are in one spot. I'll touch on why I quit my full-time job as a science writer three years ago, how my days go now, my thoughts on finding my value and identity after being a full-time working... Read more →