not necessarily in this order

  We have a family goal to actually enjoy vacations this year. To kick us off, we spent 48 hours in Portland, Maine during April’s school vacation. Here’s a loose tracking of our stops: Day 1 Stop 1 : drop Bella (our Maltese-Yorkie) off to be boarded about 20 min from our house; her tail started shedding on the ride over and the anxiety level in the car is oof. Stop 2 : Gas station snacks! Lil Momma navigates her indecision (so. many. oreo. flavors.) AND agrees to get a water, so a win overall.  Stop 3 : The rest stop just over the New Hampshire border to pick up a Combo spill, use the restrooms, and stretch our legs  Stop 4 : A Wendy’s in Portsmouth; hanger averted, but at what cost? Stop 5 : Our hotel in Portland! We figured out parking for the night, ditched our stuff and went walking! Stop 6 : Gelato Fiasco ! We got mediums when we should have gotten smalls (and LM mixed her mint chip with her s’mores and had to steal my cookie dough because ew), but another overall w...

The day there was an earthquake and we go see Moana    6:54 : Wake up with a start and then remember I don’t have to rush today. Consider going back to sleep but then LM comes out of her room.   7:05 : After a cuddle with LM, put on some work from home clothes (t-shirt, hoodie, leggings), go to the bathroom, put in my contacts, deodorant, moisturize, and head downstairs.   7:15 : Yay, coffee! Try to pump LM up for the second day of state testing (forgetting she has 3 sets of it this year, so we have to do this 2 more times)   7:45 : Head upstairs to start working; notice that it’s sunny (!!!) and use that as the lead-in to my daily hello to my team.   9:10 : Go downstairs to say hello to Bella and the Mr. Make my smoothie.   9:20 : Back up to keep working on some slides.   10:02 : Go lay dramatically in my bed to mentally prepare for my meetings.   10:XX : The bed starts shaking back and forth. I call down to the Mr. and downstairs is slightl...

Well, we made it! It was one of those weird life moments where the day itself was significantly less stressful than it has been in past years (weighed down so much by logistics and illness), which made us all feel incredibly guilty for enjoying our “all pajamas, appetizers and dessert forward, sad-and-fun-and-small ” Christmas. We felt our feels and had some laughs and memories and had a lovely day together, which was the best part.  I had leaned in on prioritizing bakes to give us things to do. I stand by this strategy; however, we could end up with a significant amount of desserts for only three people. It is what it is. I’ll start with the random one: on Christmas Eve Eve, Luke and I decided we needed a cake-like dessert for us to eat because we are not going to eat the one Lil Momma was making (a favorite of her and my mom, but too sugary and cool whip-y for me and too peppermint for Luke. We have been watching the Christmas Masterclass episodes of the Great British Bake Off w...

What a week, what a week… I have been seeing all these memes about the audacity of people still sending emails and work tasks when it’s basically the limbo that is Christmas week into New Year’s and I feel like life doubled down to make it super real to me!     Work has been oof the past few days as I found out me (and a bunch of us) are  losing our assigned workspaces  in the office and need to be cleaned out by mid-January. I always knew it was a possibility, but such a bummer to hear about this of all weeks (and with no warning / appeal) (and right before my 10 days off) and have to communicate to 30+ unsuspecting folks I sit nearby. I mean, I have no intention of going  in 4 days  a week just to ensure I can be assigned a desk again, but it’s hard to deal with change when there’s no good reason. This all may be my hatred of packing, too, haha! There are worse things, but airing a small grievance felt right? Random penguin to transition into holiday top...

Our Thanksgiving was the quiet and weird one we figured it would be. Lil Momma asked for a pajama day and we leaned into that vibe:    Don’t want to start cooking until after we watch the parade?  Sure!   Having trouble timing the rolls with the turkey being done?  Rolls are the appetizer course!   Apple dessert not made yet?  Dessert will be dinner!   I had missed my usual “carbs are the priority” test bake weekend, so all of the baking was an “on the day” risk – but, we were ready for it!   LM had asked for “ homemade Bertucci’s rolls to dip in olive oil with parmesan ” as her one meal request. Now, I have made dinner rolls, but I haven’t made Italian ones before. I found  this recipe  and did my best to time it out. Making the “biga” 12-24 hours ahead went well (don’t ask me about the 2 forgotten bigas from the tests that never happened, haha, but please don’t), but I ran into some trouble with not knowing how long the first and ...

Obviously, it's been an emotional few weeks, but life peeked in, as it does, and we keep going, as we do. A few memorable moments from recent times: One  the casting came out for LM’s spring musical theater class musical,  Matilda Jr.  a few weeks ago. The owner (who was my teacher when I was a child), had pulled both LM and I aside the week before and said what a great audition she had, which made us both feel a glow because LM had worked so hard in preparation. Wildly, she did not get either role she read for - but, she did get one of the leads! She’ll be the villain, headmistress Agatha Trunchbull. She had a moment of sadness (“ But I’m not a mean person! Do they think I’m mean?! ”), but came into excitement when she realized that she’d have 2 songs and a ton of lines. This will be a journey, haha .  Two  the cast came off! (check out its final Tarbies trip below). We had a countdown of days going, but the Friday popped up when we had to head back to the orth...

  This week is not weeking that way I had hoped to week, but I’m seeing this as a way to get some of the noise out of my head!   One  I don’t love cake. There. I said it.  I DON’T LOVE CAKE ! It’s too sweet and frosting is mushy and there’s nothing to crunch on. Please don’t tell Lil Momma.   Two  I love a  walk in the cold, crisp air . It’s bracing and I need to be braced sometimes! It takes my breath away and opens my eyes and makes me feel so present. Three  The rebellious joy I get from  DNF-ing books that aren’t serving me  is one of the highlights of my year. Not forcing myself to finish (after a lifetime of trudging through books just to finish them) has reignited my love of reading.   Four  Sometimes when I’m running errands, I  buy myself a little snack and sit in my car in the parking lot and read blogs and listen to my favorite songs  and those are some of the times I feel most like myself.   Five ...