I love birthdays. I LOVE birthdays. I love the celebratory nature of them, the special eventitude, the cake. (I love the birthday cake. Even over-sugared grocery store frosting birthday cake is the stuff I love.) I love ushering in a new year, taking a moment to say “This is who I am now, and this acknowledgement needs to be acknowledged by folks outside the general vicinity of my bathroom mirror.” And oof- lemme tell you, I love my children’s birthdays. {Read More}
West Nile, 4 weeks in.
September 29, 2016 By 2 Comments
Hi, everyone! It’s me, your neighborhood Typhoid Mary (who, j/k, isn’t actually contagious in the slightest because- again- I’m not a mosquito). But it’s me! Kind of. It’s hard to see past these layers of under eye-concealer and blankets wrapped around my noggin. Picture Jacob Marley. If Jacob Marley didn’t look quite so well-rested. Also- hey! Guys! An alarming number of you read the previous post’s title and laughed like, “Oh man, West Nile. You must be feeling SICK. How’s {Read More}
That time I had West Nile (this month).
September 22, 2016 By 4 Comments
Oh, you guys. I have a confession to make. I’ve been kinda sick lately- and for a longish time- and when you’re sick for a longish time without any crazy real announcement, people assume that a) you’re pregnant, b) you’re dying, or c) you’re pregnant and dying (which really brings in the ol’ meal train offers.) I am not pregnant. I am not dying. I’ve actually- and fairly recently- been diagnosed with the West Nile virus. Yep. And since, when {Read More}
My baby started preschool and I’m super great with it, really.
September 15, 2016 By 4 Comments
Jasper started school. SCHOOL, you guys. For two and a half hours a day. (Two mornings a week.) Granted, he’s not sending me monthly postcards from his assigned oil rig- yet- but it’s hitting me oddly. Not jubilantly- like some of you freewheeling parents out there. (How the heck do you do it? Not celebrate, I mean. How do you do make it through a school day without wondering who’s gonna play Hungry, Hungry Hippos with you? On whom do {Read More}
Girl Trip: Santa Barbara edition a.k.a. An unwise amount of food.
September 1, 2016 By 3 Comments
Last weekend, I abandoned my husband and three kids and jetted off to Santa Barbara for the lowest-key “lost” weekend ever to be kinda/sorta misplaced. Okay, fine. P.J. was with me when I booked the tickets. He practically shoved me out the door. Because he knew- and I know- that when two important people in your life request a getaway, you go away (with them). Kat and Annie were among my very first Chicago pals. We were all of us {Read More}
The worst/best neighborhood in the world/Chicago.
August 25, 2016 By 2 Comments
Sometimes you hate your neighborhood. Sometimes it’s too grungy and loud and entirely too in-your-face for a person who (perhaps) has just returned from the seaside. It doesn’t matter which seaside, only that the glaring juxtaposition with any seaside drives home the fact that someone has recently puked in the alley and you may or may not have run over an already deceased rodent while parking in your garage immediately upon returning from said anonymous seaside. Sometimes after-hours Spanish karaoke sessions {Read More}
Camping. A thing we totally did.
August 18, 2016 By 2 Comments
We went camping this past weekend. No, nothing in that sentence was a typo. It did not involve four star hotels- and, in fact, my accommodations were downright tiny. (There were multiple feet in multiple faces at multiples hours of the evening.) There were, however, exceptional friends on this camping trip. The kind who take this trip every year together with their families of three and four. So when they invited our family of five [crazies], I was a) honored {Read More}
5 ways my vacation and my home are very, very different.
August 11, 2016 By Leave a Comment
Hi. So, I’m not fully back back. Our luggage is back, that’s for sure. (I’m pretty sure it found some friends and made some babies by the looks of the unpacking and laundry. The amount of pajamas alone are quite suspect.) The children are back and so are their parents- at least physically. Mentally, on the other hand, is a different story. There are exhausted meltdowns. There are 3am, 4am, 5am wake ups. There are floor naps. (And that’s just {Read More}
