Normally, Chicagoans enjoy very fine autumn weather. It isn’t unusual for the kids to play in the sidewalk sprinkler well into October. But, this year, winter came in early November and hasn’t left. Last Monday the kids even had a very unexpected snow day from school. We were coming off a long week off for the […]

Winter is here. All summer and fall we play in the courtyard with our neighbors well into the evening, but now that the cold and dark have settled in we’re all stuck inside more than we’d like. While I miss the familiar summer charms of cicadas and chirping birds and rosy dusks, the charm of tucking […]

We’ve finally settled into the new school year routine. Of course, all summer the kids were up at 6:30, and now that we have to get to school in the morning I have to drag them out of bed at 7 – go figure!  But, other than that life is moving along pretty good. Evie […]

Mack is an enigma to me. He is a newly 3 rambunctious and energetic boy, and he functions at top speed ALL THE TIME.  At his age, I was happy to spend every afternoon playing My Little Ponies with my three sisters, so having a young fella of my own is still new to me.  […]

I recently read about a study that found nearly half of all moms suffer from Pinterest stress. Apparently, 42 percent of mothers worry that they are not crafty or creative enough for their growing families.  They worry about keeping up with what others are doing, and the self-induced pressure for perfection keeps many moms up […]

Chicago (finally) got a bit of winter weather yesterday.  The sleet started around 10 am, and the snow continued through the night. For this lifelong Midwesterner, however, the few inches on the ground this morning were but a pittance. Mack loves playing in the snow, but yesterday’s weather was wet and icy so we stayed […]

As I’ve written about before, my Mack is a force to be reckoned with.  He needs to keep busy or else he’s causing trouble.  When I saw a recipe on Pinterest for beads made out of pasta I knew it would be a fun activity for us to do together.  He and I had the […]