Collaborative Minecraft game: a screen time use I feel pretty good about! Lately a parenting theme in our house has been “getting things ship shape.” The three areas we're working on, and what I'll share here over three posts, are screen time, chores, and behavior. For all three of these categories of parenting / kiddo management I had a realization of, "Wait a minute. How did we get here?" Because our day to day reality was not matching up to our parenting values nor to the routines that we have tried to instill. I was a bit down on myself... 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 →

Team Wharton on the last day of 2023! At the end of 2022 I wrote myself a quick email to be delivered at the end of the year. It arrived in my inbox yesterday. I wrote briefly about "what's great right now" and "what's hard right now" and hoped for my future self that the hard stuff would be less so by this time. And a few of the hard things do feel better! At this time last year we were carrying the disappointment of Chris not getting sabbatical which Chris has now processed and put behind him. I was... Read more →

Oh, for the love of toddlers! Surely they must take the cake for being at once the cutest and most exasperating creatures on the Earth. Our lives have been steeped in Maeve's toddlerness for the past year and a half which has brought so much sweetness, and put our patience to the test (often multiple times a day). Although it feels like we've had a toddler for a long time (and honestly we've had a toddler almost continually for about nine years so no wonder) I know that suddenly this season will be behind us. Lately, I've felt myself looking... Read more →

My brain is in holiday mode. I feel like I have many tabs open, from thinking about Thanksgiving cooking and shopping for gifts to what festive things I want to enjoy with my family. In case you're feeling the same, I thought I would share my holiday thoughts and plans. Maybe it'll give you some ideas for your holiday season, or at least you'll know you aren't alone in trying to keep track of all the holiday planning. Without further ado, here’s everything holiday-related on my mind right now… Pie Friendsgiving: for the past few years I've bought a couple... Read more →

Let's talk about dinner, shall we? That daily meal that can be – at least to me – both a satisfying comfort and a source of unresolved stress. Of all my routines in life, dinner seems to be the one I cannot figure out how to optimize. And for someone who loves to optimize and to cook that can leave me feeling quite frustrated. Not to mention that dinner comes around every. single. day. Last year I wrote about our current dinner situation, its challenges, and some ideas for simplifying. More recently I've been revisiting our dinner routines again, possibly... Read more →

Earlier this week I shared what daily routines, camps, and summer fun we have planned for the kids. I'd love to continue the conversation today and share more about summer camp days for Chris and me, what I'm looking forward to cooking + eating this summer, and the summer capsule wardrobe pieces that I'll be wearing. Let's get into it! Summer camps days for the parents A few times this summer all of the kids will be out of the house at camps or daycare. We'll take advantage of Chris's laid-back summer schedule and are declaring those days our own... Read more →

The boys finished school last Thursday so it's officially summer for us! Given that summer is my least favorite desert weather and I don't typically love the lack of routine, I'm feeling surprisingly excited and optimistic for this summer. Hey, I'll take it! Chris and I spent some time this spring brainstorming around "designing our summer" (a term from Gretchen Rubin that I fell in love with years ago) and then we had a summer planning coffee date to make concrete plans. We made plans for how we'll keep the kids busy, what family fun we can look forward to,... Read more →

Today I have three simple parenting recommendations to share. All are no-tech and require only pen, paper, and a sharpie marker. Here are three parenting things that I'd love to recommend: Write a chore checklist A while ago I shared that we were using an app called Chore Pad that lets you customize chore lists for different kids and accumulates star rewards when chores are checked off. This worked really well for a while and did accomplish our goal of nagging the boys less in the morning. Instead of asking, "Did you brush your teeth yet?" We could just say,... Read more →

In February I shared a post with a snapshot of how we currently manage our personal finances. Today I'm sharing a budget breakdown with actual numbers. I know I find it so helpful to see how other people allocate their money and what they actually spend on things, so I hope this will be helpful to see. Being transparent about our money also motivates me to spend and save well. Not reflected in this budget are any expenses related to The Girl Next Door podcast or our home in Eau Claire. This is because both of those endeavors have their... Read more →