Before I had kids, my ideas about motherhood were cheerfully naive, almost like commercials for a Hallmark movie. Pillow fights on a sun-dappled bed with feathers floating down around laughing faces. Baking cookies together and smiling as little noses are dotted with flour. Building forts with pillows and stuffed animals for stories before bedtime. Is …
Junk in the Trunk
Back in the day, there was a set of commercials for Subaru that played a lot here in Portland. They focused on a dealer-installed option of a chimpanzee in the trunk, which was activated by a special button inside the car. The chimpanzee would then spring into action, Lamaze coaching pregnant women in labor, handling …
Mama Ain’t Happy
I’m having a pretty crappy week and it’s mostly my own fault. I have, once again, wildly overcommitted myself in every area possible. And, as always seems to be the case, my life falls to pieces at exactly the wrong time. It started on Monday when I broke a tooth. It didn’t hurt, so I …
My Bermuda Triangle
There was a leadership seminar long ago that showed us all a slide with a big triangle in the center. Each of the three sides were labeled. One was Quality, another Speed and the third was Economy. The premise of the seminar was that no project could meet all three of these criteria - only …
Sir, Yessir!
My grandpa was a career Army man. He joined the Army at 17 and was allowed to graduate high school a year early along with all the other men in his class in order to join the war effort. Papa loved the Army and America at large. He hated Jane Fonda until the day he …
Snow. Jon Snow.
I was not a rookie mom when I made the decision to quit my job and stay home with the kids. Bean was almost 9 at that point and the boys were 5. I had seen quite a bit already - we'd waded into the murky unknown of Bean's biological family, Noodle had been born …
Who Needs Creme Brûlée, Anyway?
I am an admittedly poor mathematician, but I think it’s a fairly safe bet that the odds of a day going according to plan decrease exponentially with the addition of a child. There are so many unknowns to prepare and plan for with a little one in tow. When it was just us and Bean, …
World’s Okayest Mom
I know I’ve lamented over summer in the past, but it really boils down to one simple thing: TOO MUCH TOGETHERNESS. I wouldn’t have thought such a thing was possible back at the end of the school year. The June version of me was ambitious. June Me had ideas for craft plans and park picnics …
Deja Vu
It’s funny how things come together sometimes. It’s almost a little conspiratorial some days. My very last post was about how bad my house smelled because I baked banana bread (barf) and today it smells like linen-scented Glade. See, Roo was in the bathroom this morning. And he decided that it smelled bad in there …
Banana Scented Love
Having been to culinary school and explored a wide berth of cultural cuisine, I consider myself fairly omnivorous. There isn't much that I don't like or won't try at least once. During my time in South America, we were served some seriously strange things, from iguana to guinea pig to barbequed cockroaches. My list of …
My Five Ring Circus 