See what I mean? Perfect ocean peace… no mention of riptides or sharks…
There’s a very popular saying of “Follow Your Bliss” that comes up a lot especially on Pinterest, in hand lettering, and in self help books or life classes. And while I’m pretty sure I agree with the spirit of the saying- that your passions will lead you to your vocation, I don’t love this Continue reading
He was excited to finally cake smash…
So, I wasn’t originally going to write about this as my baking project, but after how much fun we had, I thought I should share. With how busy we’ve become since having a baby, we were fiercely protective of celebrating our anniversary. We even turned down jobs to keep the day open so we could celebrate together. However, while May 12th is our anniversary and my poor husband has SO many celebrations he has to make happen in May between birthdays and mother’s day etc. that we decided to stay home and celebrate with a home cooked meal. He did dinner and I did dessert. At our wedding we had some AMAZING cupcakes made by a dear friend and some truffles which were perfect for our celebration. We didn’t have a traditional wedding cake, and we did not Continue reading
I have a confession to make- I’m kind of bi-polar about social media. I’m always trying it figure out how to use it well while falling prey to as few pitfalls as possible such as it becoming a crutch, a timesuck, or whirlpool of negativity. I, along with most people in my generation, am still negotiating how much the lives of myself and my family should be shared publicly and how much should stay private. I have gone through pages where I purged my Facebook friends count by over half- just across the board cuts. I’ve given up Facebook for a day, a month, a week at a time. I’ve had unplugged weekends and experimented with when I should and should not have my phone. I still have no concrete answers. But you know what I can’t fault the internet and social media for? Making a person feel pretty damn awesome and appreciated on their birthday. Continue reading
I wanted to write an update on babywearing, and I had a huge awesome post all ready to go, but when I went to add pictures my browser crashed and I was left with NOTHING. two naptimes worth of work down the drain. NO. GOOD. So I will try to reconstruct what I can and leave you with a bunch of said pictures to make up for the greatness that might not have made it back into this post 2.0 So, a babywearing update in Q&A form
You’re still babywearing? Why? Isn’t your son more of a toddler now? Continue reading
I learned this Lent, from someone in my church group, that hot cross buns are a Catholic tradition for Good Friday. I had no idea! In fact, I had never even tried hot cross buns until a dear friend baked some for my bridal shower several years ago. Before that, I thought they were just nonsense words in a nursery rhyme song you learn to play on the recorder in elementary school music. (one a penny two a penny….) Regardless, I remember them being delicious (which made me a little confused because usually Lent means giving up all the delicious) so I decided to go do a little research. Continue reading
Today’s baking project includes a special guest helper- my nephew! Continue reading
***Originally Posted 2/5/15***
To kick off the theme of the month- beauty, I want to talk about how things that are beautiful are not always pretty. How I Learned to Drive opens tonight and if I haven’t beaten it into this blog enough in the last month, here it goes again: it is a staggeringly beautiful play. There are incredible depictions of the human condition along with a good dose of laughter, wit, and love. That being said, it is a hard play. If you are looking for flashing lights and an airy frothy golden age of musicals happy ending
Roundabout Theatre’s Anything Goes… Dancing Sailors and pretty period costumes…
– you aren’t going to find that pretty stuff. But the beauty is worth it.
Childbirth was a beautiful experience, but everyone in that room can assure you it wasn’t pretty.
***Originally posted 1/23/15***
So this article from Scary Mommy popped up on a friend’s Facebook wall today and it made me really want to write this post about my own experience with pregnancy. I thought I knew “what to expect” when it came to pregnancy. Not just the societal ideals and pop culture memes, but on a more thought out level because not only had I read the entire What to Expect When You’re Expecting book before I was even thinking about having children, I read it in service of working on my graduate thesis
In case you can’t see, that’s a paper fetus from when I played pregnan Helena… Photo by Woods Pierce from All’s Well That Ends Well directed by Linden Kueck
which dealt with staging pregnancy and pregnant characters in Shakespeare and how that highlights some gender issues we have as a society. I knew a lot of facts, but really:
***Originally posted 1/22/15***
So, I know I brag about him a lot but… my husband is pretty awesome at giving Christmas gifts. He likes to give me gifts that are all in one theme- it’s his way of giving something intangible in a tangible way. As Tom Stoppard might put it, he has a talent for the “poetry of practical gesture” and it’s one of the things I love about him! Our first year together, we were living in Virginia and, being a Phoenician through and through, I was woefully unprepared for winter. He gave me the gift of Warmth that year. He had already given me an electric heater and he added to that a wonderful winter coat and a pair of cozy and beautiful boots
That’s me… next to a pile of snow TALLER than my 5’2” self….
Sporting my warm winter coat and boots in DC with a classmate (husband not pictured)
(OK, I picked out the boots) and he also got me some of those instant hand warmer packs.
When I was pregnant last Christmas, he gave me the gift of Comfort: Continue reading
Alphabet Resolutions 