Breezy spring days are here and I just want to stay. Let's not rush into summer as late April always seems want to do. I feel acutely aware of the world turning in April, of another year passing. We mark our wedding anniversary (15 years ago on April 1), having our first baby (12 years ago on April 9) and of having our last baby, and our girl (five years ago on April 5). I love living in the same place that we brought our babies home to and feeling the layered memories of all the years wash over me... Read more →

In my last post, I shared some of the known notable things coming up in 2025 for my family and me. I also shared that my word of the year is power. Today I'm sharing my goals for the year, which I break up across a few areas of my life. I call these constellation areas in my workshops and they are: personal care and growth, health, relationships (including marriage, parenting, family, and friendship), fun and creativity, work, and home and finances. Although each of these areas overlap and interact, I feel grounded across my life when I consider how... Read more →

On December 31 I completed the fourth year in my line-a-day journal. The next day I flipped to the front of the book to start the year again, and this year will complete my second five-year line-a-day journal. In keeping these little journals, a couple short sentences can take me back in time, and I can see past seasons with perspective. I remember starting last January feeling a bit worn out. Looking back over my line-a-day journal from last year it's no wonder. We were incredibly social over the holiday break, plus one kid had a sports practice (just no... Read more →

Friends, I'm thrilled to share with you that I'll be hosting Your Year to Shine: A Goals Workshop again for 2025! This workshop is a culmination of my many years of practicing and studying goal-setting, and having informal goal setting summits with friends. Your Year to Shine brings you everything I’ve learned about intentional goal setting in an encouraging, flexible, and cheerful way! Your Year to Shine registration is open and costs $159. After registration, you will be added to the private Substack group for the workshop and have access to all content when it becomes available. This year Your... Read more →

Friends, the weather is really getting me down this year! It's been so hot. Even when the heat drags on at least we are usually in the low 100s or high 90s by this point. This year it's just a string of numbers over 105º week after week after week. Last week it was 112º. (Maybe it's going to break next week?) Although summer is stubbornly holding on, Maeve and Cedric saw the first geese of fall during the last week of August. The evenings are getting darker a little earlier and the mornings are at least less hot. For... Read more →

After school snack spread featuring pumpkin muffins*, The Week Junior, and National Geo Kids magazines We are over a week into a new school year and it's going okay. One kiddo initially had a hard time with the transition but is doing really well now (I'm so thankful!). We are far from being in a solid school-year routine but we are on our way and that feels good. This month we keep straddling summer and the school year. It's still soo hot and our options for weekend family fun feel really limited, especially if you don't want to spend all... Read more →

Recently, Chris and I kicked off a day date in our favorite way: with a coffee + budgeting session. It was a particularly fun one because we were incorporating Chris's new salary as a full professor and projecting out a few years to include some possible big goals. After diving into our budget I wanted to share a few places where we are trying to manage spending, and a few budgeting wins lately. If you'd like to see more about our budget, last year I wrote an overview post about how we manage our finances and a post about our... Read more →

I'm ready to shift into a summer mindset. And good thing because summer weather is knocking at our door and the kids are done with school next Thursday! In my previous post I shared how we're designing our summer with activities for the kids, daily routines, and family fun. Today I'd like to share how we're designing our summer in terms of my mindset, summer eating + drinking, and everyday joys. If you'd like more ideas, I wrote about designing my summer last year as well. Summer mindset: be where you are During the summer we don't have as many... Read more →

I can't believe it's time for my "designing our summer" blog posts again, which I really enjoyed writing last year (kid summer, my summer). But here we are with a week and a half of school left!! Today I'll share what we're thinking in terms of summer kid activities, daily routines, and family fun. Later this week I'll share a post with ideas for how I'm designing summer for myself as well. Summer big picture Here's a fun little realization I've had this year: as much as I dislike the extreme heat of summer, I kind of love planning for... Read more →

Hello, friends! Our palo verde is in peak bloom and as I glance up from writing this I'm met with a view out the window of golden yellow blooms drifting down from branches of bright green. I love this time of year when our front yard becomes blanketed in gold as the blooms fall and keep their yellow color even as they dry out. The Phoenix Valley cities really should advertise our palo verde blossom season along the lines of D.C.'s cherry blossom season. It's truly so beautiful to see trees bursting in bright gold blooms this time of year.... Read more →