Our home

A few of my kitchen "decide onces" I've had a few conversations with a dear friend recently where we recall things we did in high school that are so similar to how we are today (being super organized for example, or loving home decor). We laugh and say, "We've always been the same people!" One example of this is that it can be hard for me to make decisions, especially about relatively inconsequential things, and apparently I've been that way since childhood. A story my mom tells goes like this: one day my mom asked me to pick out a... Read more →


More than halfway through January and I think I'm finally feeling the rhythm of the new year. We seem to be making progress on the parenting hard stuff I mentioned and will keep at it. Chris and I have been revisiting and tweaking some family routines like screen time, manners at the dinner table, and chores which has me feeling like we're righting a listing ship. And I'm finding everyday routines again for my work as well as laundry, dinner, and tidying which all felt quite out of sorts over the holidays. It feels like a good tidying of sorts... Read more →


Somewhat similar to Thursday House, Chris and I noticed another phenomenon that seems to indicate how busy we are and how tidy (or untidy) the house is. We call it bedroom corners or just corners. I bet you have something similar in your life. Here's what we noticed: each of us tend to accumulate stuff to be dealt with in the four corners of our bedroom. I accumulate things in the corner near my side of the bed and next to the chair (which is in a corner). Chris accumulates things in the corner next to his side of the... Read more →


I love that our xeriscaped front and back yards don't require a lot of water. What they do require, however, is vigilance when it comes to weeds. Unwelcome green leaves pop up throughout our gravel landscaping during the spring and fall. Without attention they can quickly take over. And then the dreaded letter from the HOA will follow... For years we've used weed killers like RoundUp to kill weed sprouts. I've never felt great about using RoundUp but for a long time didn't know what else to do. The weeds can be so abundant that physically removing them was too... Read more →


It's time to say goodbye to 2022. I'm in an end-of-year contemplative mood and am enjoying listening to podcast episodes and reading blog posts reflecting on the year. There are so many highlights and changes to celebrate from this past year. Some of the good changes brought challenges too, like relocating to a new city for a month and being out of our routines, living through a whole-home renovation, and keeping up with an ever-changing toddler and our big boys. Reflecting on the past year helps me to see and celebrate growth and accomplishments, big and small. This practice also... 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 →


Despite loving to cook and being a very organized person, feeding my family day in and day out continues to feel just short of running as smoothly as I'd like. It's not terrible. We do have some systems in place that work pretty well. And every night we feed everyone, usually with a homemade dinner that is not cereal. So there's a lot to celebrate! But I keep feeling like the whole thing, from meal planning to making a grocery list to shopping and the actual cooking of dinner, could be optimized. As one of my goals for the year,... Read more →


Kids and stains go together like...glitter and literally any surface. There just seems to be a universal law of attraction. And it's not just kids' clothes that get stained. Your clothes too will bear witness to whatever meal or messy crafts have occurred. Babies and toddlers are especially great stain-makers. From diaper blow outs to delightfully smearing a snack over their whole being, we are in a season with lots of laundry stains! I wasn't always great about getting stains out of the boys' clothes when they were little. This time around I've perfected my laundry stain treatment and it's... 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 →


Last Thursday we dropped the boys off at school for the first time this school year. To describe it to you I want to overuse the word familiar and keep deleting the sentences. So much has felt unfamiliar this past year, and hard in its unfamiliarity, that being familiar is wonderfully novel. And yet familiar does not fully capture the ache of normalcy that returning to our school community brought to me. It felt so good (so! good!) to see so many people I recognized and to exchange pleasantries even if hampered a bit by our masks and tinged by... Read more →