Recently, I traveled to San Francisco for work to attend a (fantastic) writing workshop. And I was reminded of something: I love to travel by myself. I kept my hotel room, which overlooked the bay, ridiculously tidy just because I could. When I needed to be somewhere I could get ready leisurely but arrive in plenty of time. At home I'm so accustomed to the long list of tasks that must be negotiated and completed before we leave. To suddenly only worry about myself felt laughably simple. I also find being in an unfamiliar place slightly disorienting in a pleasing... Read more →

One of my favorite ways to avoid small talk - which I kind of hate - is to ask someone if they've read any good books lately or are listening to any good podcasts. And although I'm usually behind on movies and definitely on television shows I'll happily talk about those at length instead of about the weather.  So to avoid telling you about the hot, hot, humid weather, here are a few recommended reading + listening + watching from my list... 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 →

When I set my word of CHOOSE for 2017 I was interested to see how I would manifest it in my life. I said that above all else I want to CHOOSE family and writing this year, the two things that are most important to me. At the time I had a very full plate: working full time, parenting two little boys, co-running a household, co-hosting and producing two podcasts, co-owning Copper Quail Style, working part time as a freelance writer, exercising regularly, being active in a book club and trying to write for myself on this blog. On top... Read more →

Every year is significant but this past year felt especially so for personal growth. Heading into 2016 I hoped that over the year I would begin to emerge from the intensely demanding period of having two boys under three, waking many times during the night and breastfeeding. I was looking forward to reclaiming my body and energy, and focusing some of that new-found energy on myself. So I declared 2016 The Year of Kelsey. I made goals of building a capsule wardrobe, a capsule skin care and makeup routine, going on creative field trips and traveling by myself. I worked... Read more →

Every year I enjoy creating our family Christmas card and sending them all across the country, from San Francisco to Brooklyn, and even to Canada! I designed our cards myself again this year and I'm so happy with how they turned out. Here are our cards in previous years: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015 (so many!). Originally I thought I would do a collection of photos from the year like I did in our card last year. But then I remembered the awesome family picture we took together during Chris's birthday trip to Prescott. Plus the fact that our... Read more →

Last Saturday, in those long hours between nap and dinner, the boys were getting restless and so was I. Chris was happy to be at home with Cedric and so Dashiell and I made plans for an outing. First, we headed to the library where we walked hand in hand through the doors and Dashiell returned our books through the slot, one by one. We stopped by the giant doll house behind glass and searched for the hidden pumpkins, as is the theme this season, before combing the shelves in the children's section. After filling our canvas bag and checking... Read more →

I work full time as a science writer and at any one time I have several projects or tasks on my plate with varying levels of priority. Some, like writing a new article from scratch, take hours and I need to be fully immersed in the task to do my best work. Some tasks come in suddenly and must be done right away, putting everything else on hold. Some tasks aren't difficult but they require coordinating between several people - writing emails, waiting for a response, figuring out a time everyone can meet and then finding an available conference room.... Read more →

We try to keep toys simple and few at our house but I'm happy to have children's books in every room. As a result, reading is an activity option at any time of the day. We're also building a collection of children's books via Audible and we listen to stories when we're in the car with the boys. You can purchase Audible audio books through Amazon without an Audible membership. The jack to plug in my phone to the car speakers is broken so I play the books on my Audible app and put my phone in a cup holder... Read more →

When I moved to Arizona eight years ago this month (!) I was just out of graduate school and eager to read novels instead of textbooks. I had always loved the idea of belonging to a book club and as I put together my post-school adult life I set out to find one. The first book club I came across on Meet Up was the East Valley Casual Women's Book Club which described exactly what I was looking for and it turned out to be a perfect fit. Just as I suspected I love having a book club in my... Read more →