(…Because when you’re the middlest middle who ever middled, “your very own” anything is cause for celebration.) 9: Dearest Susannah, Usually, I write you an open bloggy letter of sorts on your birthday. Usually, it’s filled with musings on the past year, hopes for the future, and high fives for our present. Usually, a year like the one we’ve had is not our “usual.” But wait- before I get completely ahead of myself- happy birthday, dear Suzy, happy birthday to {Read More}
On missing things.
September 9, 2019 By 2 Comments
Oh- hey there, friend. Did you miss me? I’ve definitely been missing this space. Which is a good, good thing. For a while there, I wasn’t missing it. It felt like yet another deadline, yet another thing I hadn’t done in any sort of timely manner, and yet another thing causing the ball of stress in my belly to poke me in the brain at 4am. (Isn’t that how your anatomy works?) So I spent the summer reading books. Good {Read More}
3 unusual things that are emerging as I age
June 21, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Happy summer! Happy solstice! Happy roughly ten weeks of zero public school drop off, pick up, stand up, sit down, fight fight fight! (And to my longtime readers/framily, happy “We know you’re going to be posting with the regularity of a cheerfully confused wombat” season to us all!) As I enter into this highly anticipated season with my kids, the wind-down of the school year has allowed my brain to acknowledge some rather unusual things about myself that have started {Read More}
September feelings and missing my kids.
September 13, 2018 By 2 Comments
Happy September! I’ve missed you, friends! (And, to be honest, I’ve missed me-as-blogger. Which makes this summer’s experiment a success!) There’s so much- and so many feelings- to catch you up on. Let’s start with: Oh, September. First days of school make me maudlin. Not because I get all “where did my babies goooo” (which I sometimes do), but because it reminds me of all of the moments that have blown by and all of the moments that’ll blow by {Read More}
Summer wins & fails- so far
July 20, 2017 By 1 Comment
Chicago Public School kids are officially done with their first month of summer vacation- and it was a looong time in the making. (Looking at you, everyone else who was frolicking in sprinklers by, like, May 12th.) I’m usually pretty hard on myself in terms of idealizing summer and then smacking that right up against Actual, Humans With Children Summer. But once we got the kitchen up and running again and all three children firmly home, it seemed…easier, somehow, to {Read More}
A summer faves roundup- and a giveaway!
June 27, 2017 By 3 Comments
Disclosure: These companies and products are better than the last hour of the last day of school. Although I’ve been compensated, all thoughts, opinions, and dreams of endless summer are entirely my own. Okay- the days are blissfully warm, bedtimes are nonexistent, and the kids are finally out of school. Happy summer! Ready to hear about my new favorite goodies? (I knew you would be.) Plywerk I’ve gotten into the really, really good habit lately of printing, framing, and displaying {Read More}
Got teens who love films? Give them this experience, Chicago.
June 2, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Fresh Films, a company whose programs I really, really admire. Although I’m compensated, all thoughts, opinions, and incredibly envious reactions are entirely my own. *** Popping in for some Friday fun because of a quickly approaching deadline for a company– and program!– you need to know about, Chicagoland. Not-for-profit Fresh Films is creating TV pilots for their annual summer program, and bringing on crews of local teens to learn lighting, camera {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}
