This is what starting almost Whole 30 looks like

Who the actual hell let these two infants make major life decisions

Once upon a time lived a young couple who had no children.  While they both had careers, they made sure to prioritize their health, each attending different exercise classes and the gym multiple times a week, preparing unique recipes that had words like antioxidant rich in them, blissfully ignorant what their future lifestyle and metabolisms had in store. 

The Distraction Series: Episode 2

Nearly three months ago, in an attempt to not get swallowed up by the daily onslaught of insane news headlines, I wrote a blog post about things that "provide distraction, bring joy, and are easily accessible," and at the end of the post I was like, "I will be back next week with more great things!"  This time I'll say, "I will be back in twelve short weeks with some fun things!" 😑

This is what 21 months looks like

21 months.  I sort of hate saying ages in month terms after about 18 months.  It's too much.  I can't do it.  She'll be two in March, is how I'll continue henceforth.  Except that sort of breaks my heart because this kid who was A BABY a few minutes ago is going to be TWO, and two is not a baby age. So maybe I'll stick to 21 months? Ugh, DECISIONS.

Grace's Fairy Fourth Birthday

You know how you have an idea and then you decide to pursue said idea even though you're fairly certain the idea isn't exactly feasible without your spouse's help and a tremendous amount of work, but you wait as long as you can to tell your spouse so you can be too far "in" to said idea to turn back?  Allow me to introduce you to the fairy party idea 😊.

This is what 4 looks like

"That looks like puke! What sort of dinner is this anyway?"

Welcome to four.

Movin' On Up

A few nights ago, Eric and I sat down to eat dinner after putting our girls to bed.  We do this every now and again, feed them when they're hungry, before Eric gets home from work, stifling our hanger hunger until 9 or so, and sit together and enjoy an overcooked, usually stale meal together.  We also usually drink adult things so WIN. Anyway, this past week, over a bowl of chicken bloated-noodle soup, we were talking, catching up over our week's events, how our life has changed so much recently, and Eric said something along the lines of, "I remember you telling me a long time ago how much you hate change."  "Interesting," I said.  "I may have said that, but I don't think I meant it.  I think my younger self thought that, but what she really hated was a lack of control.  I love change.   I love how much my life has changed over the last four years, I loved my old job and how many different things I got to see and do because the scenery was always changing."  "That makes sense," Eric said back to me, with a nod and a sip of Crop Circle Wheat.  Dang, I thought, nodding and sipping my Ale Asylum back, I love getting older and wiser. 

The Distraction Series, Episode 1

It has been hard for me to write lately.  I feel overwhelmed by the demands of raising two small children and the state of the world.  Usually I can make it through the girls' bedtime and then I just sort of implode; retreating inward to process everything I've seen and heard on any given day, and I'm left feeling impotent and hopeless. We all know there's a lot happening, it feels very chaotic, it feels scary to me. It's hard to write because everything I read is also angry, or worried, or divided and I just don't want to contribute to that noise, even though it seems there's nothing else to say without first addressing the elephant in the room: