I shared a few tips for a successful marriage. I haven’t been married quite ten years, but I’m declaring myself an expert anyway. Based on your comments, my husband isn’t the only one who may love his grill more than his wife, and we are a bunch of eye-rolling, silent-treatment slinging women.

The sight of my five year old clomping around in his dad’s snow boots brought me to tears. Graham is flinging himself recklessly into the world of grade schoolers, but so much of him is still a small child. How can he be so big and so little at the same time?

We got to see some of our family from California last week, and we had this awesome Loaded Baked Potato Soup. A good meal with family is such a blessing. Thinking about that day will make me smile for months. 

If you’re familiar with my blog, you know I love an embarrassing story. My favorite embarrassing stories are about myself because I don’t want to hurt anyone else’s feelings. And because I’m a narcissist who does tons of stupid shit. This one is about the time I fought a pair of Spanx. In public.

We are simple folk, and the two balloons we took home from a play date kept the kids and dog busy for over an hour. That’s after over three hours of balloon time at our friends’ house. 

On Friday I received some exciting blog news that I’m not quite ready to share. It was quickly overshadowed  by a phone call telling me that my grandmother had passed away. I spent Friday evening snuggling with my kids, and thinking about my grandma. How she used to buy my cousin and me beautiful matching party dresses when we were young. How she had cultivated breathtaking gardens that were featured in magazines. How she let me help her in the kitchen and try on her gargantuan bras. Swinging for hours in her hammock and looking for frogs in her pond. She taught me that it’s okay to get dirt under your nails, and about the magic of quiet early mornings. I will miss her, and I will take comfort in her memory, and think of her when I eat rhubarb pie and say my daughter’s middle name.