I used to spend so much time on the Internet looking at the ways my future house could be — would be, I promised myself.  The perfect wallpaper, the perfect grey walls, the perfect nursery decor, the perfect big farm table for the dining room.  I had the concept of the cozy kind of home I wanted to inhabit, I

I’ve been teaching my daughter to say please and thank you for things diligently.  “What do you say?” I’ve been prompting forever.  “Pees!”  “And?”  “Tank You!”  It’s an ongoing process, but she’s finally to the point where she’ll say the words unprompted every so often. And yet, despite my consistent efforts to raise a polite, thankful child, I find myself

As a mama and a librarian, this is one of my favorite times of year: the time for planning how I’m going to read in the coming year.  In the past I’ve done things like create a goal for how many books I want to read, I’ve participated in year-long activities like Book Riot’s Read Harder challenges, and I’ve winged

The six-year-old (who is only two weeks away from becoming a seven-year-old.  What is that about?!?) was in a local performance of The Nutcracker this year.  She was a peppermint hoop.  She loves to dance and perform.  She’s been to see The Nutcracker every year since she was three.  So the idea that she got to be in the performance

  Militant. Stringent. Uncompromising. These are all words you could use to describe our adherence to our bedtime ritual with our toddler.  And you’d better believe it when I say I do not care how bad they make us sound, because it works! (Yes, yes, as soon as I type “it works!” it’s all going to go to heck, but

We can hardly believe that another year has already come and gone.  As we reflect on 2016, we’re happy to share some of the highlights… In February we welcomed our fourth baby, Kid #4.  She was born on February 20 at 6:23 AM.  She weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 inches long (we think.  She’s the fourth kid and we can’t quite remember details

When it comes to finding the right mom group, things can get complicated fast.  Does everyone have the same schedule as you?  Do people have childrearing opinions that fundamentally clash with yours?  Will there be snacks for the adults?  Will someone judge you if you take some of the goldfish crackers for myself if the prior question’s answer is negative?

I love Christmas cards.  Like, I LOVE them.  A lot.  They’re basically my favorite activity of the entire year.  And yes, mine are Christmas cards.  I know some people are politically correct and send Holiday Cards.  But not me.  We celebrate Christmas and we’re proud of it so I send Christmas cards.  If you’re offended by that, we’re probably not

Pumping at work sucks (pun, yes, forgive me).  These are the things I did when I pumped at work to help myself not go totally crazy.  Please share what you did or are doing right now, too.  I have a feeling all the pumping mamas out there could use all the encouragement they can get! Load up those podcasts. You’re

  We kill time.  We kill so much time.  Of course you’d think having time to kill in Europe wouldn’t be the worst-case scenario, and you’d be sort of right, but rainy cold weather and hormones that have “depression” and “drowsiness” in the small print add up to more quiet reading in bed than anything else.  I felt waves of