This week marks your 5th birthday, my first baby. It's kind of weird to think that I've been a mom for five whole years, because it feels like just yesterday we brought you, a squirmy pink little ball of smiles, home with us. Even if it wasn't yesterday, I remember it like it was. I… Continue reading 5 Things I Love About You, My Big 5-Year-Old

Getting back into a school routine can be kind of painful. I know lots of people (myself included) just love the easy-breezy feel of summer. The going outside anytime you want, eating popsicles for breakfast, sleeping late, watching movies on a random Wednesday. But when it's time for school, I think the transition is smoothest… Continue reading 3 Tips for Surviving Back-to-School

Oh hey there, old friends. It's nice to see you finally out in the world instead of on the back shelf of the closet gathering dust and getting ignored. You've been there for years, but you still look pretty. You don't have a single hole or scuff, you're not worn down or fraying. You're pretty… Continue reading Ode to My Running Shoes

Today's a hard parenting day. Both kiddos wake up earlier than usual so I don't get my quiet morning time. Baby boy starts yelling for food almost immediately (Lord help me when he's a teenager). Our morning playtime is full of cries and screams and hair-pulls and tantrums because he is destroying something of hers… Continue reading Grace Upon Grace

This week a college friend came into town. He's this amazing baker and generously gave me some of his sourdough starter. He also spent two hours teaching a very novice bread maker (me) the exact steps to get a perfect loaf. And what we made was indeed a PERFECT loaf. My four-year-old has already slathered… Continue reading On Loaves of Sourdough and Writing

I've written about reading challenges before, and how they are so great for kids but also for adults, too. The GoodReads app has a fun little thing where you can set a reading goal for yourself and then track your books as you read them. I set my goal at 50 for the year. That's… Continue reading Mid-Year Book Round Up

Friends, I did a thing. I wrote a book (something I said I could never do, ever) and then I signed up to attend a writer's conference (something I said I was way too scared to do, ever). With the registration fee, you get one free agent pitch. That means you sit down with an… Continue reading So I Did a Thing…

I'm squished between two carseats, not a super comfortable place to be, but here I am anyway. My mom and dad are in the front, we are headed to find adventure at IKEA, and my daughter has a book in her hands. It's called Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall. The main character is a… Continue reading 6 Ways to Help Your Kids Get Ready to Read

Our girl missed the cutoff for kindergarten by a number of days, so we have one more year of preschool ahead of us, and let me tell you, preschool shopping is a painful process. So painful, in fact, that making a decision this week threw me into a full-on mom guilt attack. Mom guilt is a… Continue reading Just Say NO to the Mom Guilt (in 3 “Easy” Steps)