Dana Burland

Another year, another holiday card in the books! I truly love how C's playful personality is the star of the show here. Also secondary, but quite clear, is how incredibly smitten we are with him--enough to follow his lead, letting him rule the playroom. Truly things aren't this wild, but they are this happy. I snapped a bunch of photos before we played around with upside down boy. Just for giggles, here are some outtakes:

We're so close to the end of the year. What a weird feeling. This weekend was different, and didn't really feel so weekend-y. It felt more holiday break-y, which is better. Friday night we went out with two other couples who have babes C's age for a parent's night out triple date. These two couples are super fun and "get it" on a daily, hourly level. We went to a local fancy sushi place and ended up accidentally in a neighboring macaroon shop for dessert. So yummy. Saturday was a day that felt like three days in one--we woke up in Grand Rapids and went to bed on the other side of the state, visiting two sets of grandparents in between. On Sunday we were at a family Hanukkah party and did a group gift exchange. I was pretty sure I wanted (and would likely steal) the gift I brought to give, but ended up with two super nice travel coffee thermoses which were even better. Onto some holiday time!

It’s been 17 months since I’ve been at this mom’ing game, and this semester I’m at a solid B+, flirting with an A-, grade. I’ve found more ease in balance thanks to the adoption of an all-off/all-on mentality. If I’m playing with C I’m on the floor rolling around, reading upside-down, singing made up songs or chasing him around the house. OR I’m off, which might look like cooking and paying attention to my recipe, addressing mail without feeling rushed, painting my toenails, laying on the couch checking Instagram--or whatever. Sometimes I’m off with an eye on C playing independently nearby in which case I need to be on tasks that I can “flick the switch” on quickly. I save my hands-are-full-painting-cabinets, boots-are-dirty-gardening or body-is-outta-here-running for when C is either asleep or with a totally on B. On/off helps rid me of the guilt that I’m not doing it all, all of the time. Because I’m NOT doing it all, all the time. I’m mindfully splitting. Other tricks he...

Wow! Thank you, this is unexpected. Wow. My 700th blog post. They say "prepare something just in case", but of course I didn't prepare. First off let me thank my loyal readers--mom, my former co-worker Kathleen, other family, current coworkers, old friends and my husband of course. (Yeah, I have access to a list of email subscribers.) Some of you have been with me since my first post. Some joined along the way. But your readership, requests for recipes or surprising reminders when I take too long to publish my weekend recaps keeps the light on in this corner of the Internet. You're the readership any "publication" would hope for. And a shout out to my under-the-radar followers, too. Those random hits I get from the far east, the northeast and the east side of the state. Did you come for something juicy and end up bored by a recipe for boozy root beer floats ?  Whatever the reason, you're great, thanks for reading. Of course thanks to the Intern...

Ok, I’m really proud of this blog post title. It’s great, right? We had a hard working weekend here. Friday poor sweet little C had a ear tube procedure at the local Children’s Hospital. It’s quite routine and he’s quite fine but this mama was so nervous for it all. We had to leave the house at 5:30am for his 6am hospital check in and 7:30am procedure. We were back home safe and sound by 8:30am. C took three naps that day, but otherwise was cranky from the anesthesia. It was a long day for everyone. Saturday when C napped so did the rest of the house--for 2.5 hours. Yes, everyone! That night we got dressed up for B’s work holiday party. Sunday we met up with our neighbors for a bit for the kids to play and in the afternoon dropped C off at a friend’s house to take advantage of our babysitting trade. While we were childfree we went to the movies! We saw “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which honestly was so great. In other “news”, I made this Salted Chocolate Almond Toffee recipe as a li...

I was at my third funeral within 14 months for a great aunt or uncle who was more like an actual aunt or uncle to me. This generation above me is all in or approaching their 90s. Although yesterday’s funeral felt more like a peaceful relief, this is hard and having fresh “practice” from the one before or the one before that doesn’t help. There’s a Jewish tradition of leaving a stone on a grave when you visit. I don’t believe there’s a religious significance to this though I found “pebble” in Hebrew is the same word for “bond”. I left two small rocks on the freshest headstones in the family plot yesterday just to say you’re still here with me. I’m really hoping not to be back there again soon.

Another weekend down, another Monday to reflect on some nice time off work. We had friends from the East side of the state visit on Saturday/Sunday. We spent the night on the West side--drinks at The Knickerbocker and dinner at Butcher’s Union. Sunday we hosted a Hanukkah party for a few friends with kids Cam’s age. I love getting together with these families and getting to share how we celebrate this season was a special memory I hope we get to recreate annually.

Let’s say you’re really in the holiday spirit this year. Enjoying plenty of Christmas cookies your fabulous neighbor brought by. Digging into your pajama drawer for holiday flannel pants shaped like a tent. Perhaps you’re reminding yourself big family feasts are coming, and so is Jan. 1, so there’s really no point to resolve to be better until then. Call me. I’m doing all these things. Let’s be friends. It was fate that a few new veggie-filled recipes popped up in my face online this week. One was a sheet pan of rainbow bright veggies, oven roasted; another a plea for quinoa haters to try farro; and the last a Mediterranean style stuffed sweet potato. Can you believe I actually do buy all the healthy ingredients to make this stuff yet still find my paws digging at the bottom of the bag of the Christmas cookies? For shame. I made two recipes immediately inspired by those online posts--one for dinner, another for lunch. I’m so glad I did, and now immediately blogging about them ...

Weekends with a 1.5 year old are just… TIRING. The more we can be out exploring versus running circles in this house, the better. Saturday was a real fun day. In the afternoon we ran two “errands” specifically for C. First we, happily pet-less people, went to Petco to look at pictures of dogs. This is one of C’s favorite past times. Pictures of dogs literally take his breath away. Before that we were at Trader Joe’s specifically so C could shop around with their kid sized carts. This was a total blast, plus we picked up some essentials like dark chocolate stars and unexpected cheddar. All in all it was a good, full, exhausting and snack filled weekend. Onto the next week.

Hello from the other side of Thanksgiving. I’m back from a long weekend visiting family on the other side of the state. We had a real nice, un-rushed, trip with the kind of quality time with people we love that felt so relaxed it was as if we live there. That’s the feeling I’m always hoping for when heading home and we got loads of it this go round. Now onto important stuff. TURKEY TROT: For record keeping, not bragging, purposes--I did not run the official Turkey Trot this year because my running partner (brother) had to work. Instead I ran a very cold 5-miles on my own, not for time just for me. It was great, dare I say better than hiking downtown super early for the crowded race? Just a thought for Thanksgiving-2019-future-me. TURKEY DINNER: This year we were with my family for Thursday Thanksgiving dinner. My mom and I hosted 14 adults (and two littles) at my grandparent’s condo. We cooked all day and showed up with turkey, stuffing, asparagus, gravy, cranberry sauce, che...

Dang, that was a solid weekend. We got out for a date night--dinner and an improv show. Nothing fancy but Ben’s grad school semester is a tough one and man was it nice to relax together. I started decorating the house for winter. I’m focusing on decorating for the winter season versus holiday season this year. I put up a felt magnolia leaf garland with twinkle lights on the mantle and it’s looking so immediately cozy in here I’m not sure I’ll be able to leave for work Monday morning. Sunday we babysat for friends who have a son C’s age. The two boys actually somewhat played together! It was a total hoot. On to a short, pre-holiday week.

Introducing a winter weeknight dinner game changer: chicken noodle ramen. Last week I saw a food blog post about a standard, home-style chicken noodle soup recipe she transformed into some Asian twisted magic creation. I need this in my life. Warm, brothy soup, semi-spicy with lots of yummy filling add-ins and fun slurpy ramen noodles. Last night I made my spin on it and got a resulting “you’ve really done it now” look from my husband. It was SO good and I’m so pumped this leftover is for lunch today. I made an InstantPot chicken soup recipe , leaving the noodles they called for out. At the end I added: 2 heads of roasted garlic--mashed (this is for sure a plan ahead!) A 2-inch knob of ginger peeled and grated soy sauce--about ¾ cup 1-2 tablespoons sesame oil 2 heaping spoonfuls of chili garlic paste 4 green onions sliced 1 package Chinese style noodles (the kind that look like dried ramen noodles) 2 handfuls spinach May I humbly suggest you "do you" and...

My brother, a.k.a Uncle E, was in town to hang this past weekend. Our primary mission was to go to a pottery class together. This. Was. So. Fun. Class was held in the home of a local artist. She gave a quick demo on how to use the potter’s wheel and then we each got a chance to spin three pieces. She suggested we make a plate, bowl and a mug, but was kind enough to listen to what we wanted and to guide us toward that. Uncle E is a former high school ceramics pro and our teacher was really great about letting him do his thing while helping me (as needed) more. E made a vase, bowl and a… blate? Sort of a bowl sort of a plate? I made three “vases”. To be honest, one is more of a science beaker. Unrelated to ceramics, can we talk about how awesome my brother is as a brother, uncle, and in any/all other roles he plays? He’s always fun, always understanding, always easy going and always makes me so happy to spend time with. What a dude.

We got. things. done. this weekend. The basement office is complete. Did I mention I've been working on that? Here's a before picture from the house listing. I panted the cabinets, added hardware and had the laminate top (hard to see but it was teal with red sponge painting) resurfaced. Here's the finished version. Now it match with the basement kitchenette which is about 15 feet away. See? Hard to tell with different lighting but the previous home owners left us the paint name of the cabinets and laminate chip sample so it's an exact match. It looks GREAT. Oh, and the basement fireplace. Here's the before: And the after: This project has been done for a bit but I don't think I shared it here. It's sort of a "phase 1" budget fix until the day comes we do something different. By budget I mean those white marble tiles are just stickers over the old green marble.  Green marble. Ugh. But stickers. Yes! ...

Well that was a blast! I picked Cam up from daycare early so I could show him in his skeleton costume off around my office. He's such a trooper and was a bit shy but also playful and made lots of immediate fans. Then my mom's group  met up to trick or treat together. We had a park ranger, bumblebee (with two parental bee keepers) and my skeleton in the mix. We played inside, ate real good chili and cornbread and eventually ventured out door to door. C was a total Halloween rock star. He ran up to the seven or so houses we visited, waved and grinned frantically and picked out a (or more) candy to drop in the bag I carried. Could have only gone better if he stuck to the candy I liked and left the Almond Joy behind.

Today, Monday, is my Sunday. Last week Wednesday was my Friday. I was off for a long weekend to see friends tie the knot in Pennsylvania. We road tripped there with another couple and had a blast. Initially I was into the idea to save money and spend time with our friends, but as the wedding approached I started wondering if all those hours in the car were going to be horrid or not. It really ended being great--lots of sitting, of course, but our rental car ended up being a minivan which gave everyone room to spread out while still being within arms distance to pass the cheddar cheese puffs. #importantgoals We stopped for the night in State College (the home of Penn State), spent 1.5 days in eastern PA (which included time for the rehearsal and wedding) and drove 8 hours back to metro-Detroit on Sunday. Today Ben and I finished up the drive across the state to Grand Rapids. I still feel like I’m in a moving vehicle. Also I accidentally stumbled across an awesome hotel trick th...

This weekend Michigan was all “your summer is done. Goodbye.” We had a blue skies, thunderstorms, hail, on/off wind and rain and more beautiful blue skies all weekend. But it was cold throughout, and it felt like that big winter warning: prepare to hibernate, figure out your TV shows, ID your go-to winter meals, hygge up y’all. My mom was in town to hang with us for the weekend. Daycare was closed on Friday so we toddler wrangled together and got some good mom/daughter time in at a local home parade. Dang, seeing those houses gives me serious house goals. Recently my mom bought an InstantPot, a kitchen tool I’d fallen out of love with. I gave her a demo lesson and made Pinch Of Yum’s Chili Garlic Noodles , which was actually the first meal I ever made in my InstantPot. Less than 10 minutes later three adults and one toddler were slurping down sticky noodles and perfectly cooked chicken. Everyone was a fan and now I’m thinking, ok InstantPot, I see you. Maybe we should give this r...

I’m sitting in the corner of our living room in a big blue chair. This IKEA chair was equal parts cozy and welcoming and perfect to fit in this tight space. In this corner a year and one day ago the previous owners of this house had a big TV media stand. Instead I have my chair. Our TV is mounted above the fireplace which we redid , which is across from a photo gallery which was once a door we closed off, which is all in a room painted a brand new color in a house that we’ve completely made ours. Today is our house-a-versary--one year in our new, forever home . We’ve put so much energy into this place and made so many big memories already. We’ve gotten to know so many neighbors, gone to summer cookouts and had playdates with families who have kids similarly aged to Cam. How are we here in a welcoming and energetic neighborhood in a beautiful house with a healthy family? We’re quite lucky and thankful and quite excited for all the years we have to come here.

It’s me--the Dana you once knew who now looks unrecognizably well rested and relaxed. I spent the weekend in Ludington on a girl’s weekend with two of my closest mom friends. It was so nice. I realized halfway through we really, accidentally, planned the trip perfectly. Let me dissect: Location : far enough to be away without That Stiff Body after a long drive + town size that won’t provoke FOMO by deciding to stay in + nature for relaxing while still having access to indoor plumbing. Atmosphere : closer to the trip one friend put out a casual text conversation starter--what do you want to accomplish on this trip? Answers varied from make a blanket to read a book or recharge. It helped us set personal and group expectations. Each morning we had a quick pow-wow--what does today look like? Activities : we went for a hike to the lighthouse, we did dinner out one night. Beyond that pre-trip chats about painting nails and watching movies resulted in all voluntarily showing ...

Hello there! How are you? What are you drinking? I’ve got a quick cheat latte (thank you instant espresso powder). If we were grabbing coffee IRL here’s what I’d be chatting about. I’ve gotten back into running and it feels SO good. I’m not training or focused on much beyond trying to go every other day and trying not to do any more than I can while keeping good form. Some lingering effects from childbirth require me to run with good form or not run at all. I’m just thankful I can do it and feel good. My big at home project of the moment is the basement. Our murphy bed is complete , now I’m painting a former accent wall neutral. Instead my new accent will be the built in cabinets--which means when I finish wall painting, I’ll move on to cabinet painting. We also have a built in desk area that will be recovered in a laminate that matches the basement kitchenette. I’m wondering how I’ll transport a 12 ft sheet of laminate from Home Depot to home in my Nissan. That’ll be a story fo...

Exactly a year ago today I went back to work after a 12-week maternity leave. When I got back in the office, I posted this "recap" on my company's internal communication website. I don't think I shared it here, but to mark 365 days of semi-successfully working and mom'ing, I thought I'd revisit it. OCT 10, 2017 Today is my first day back to work after a 12-week maternity leave. Twelve weeks is a long time. I know my team felt my absence and worked hard to cover for me—all while being supportive of my leave. For that I’m grateful. I know Steelcase is unusual offering such a lengthy leave. For that I’m beyond grateful. Motherhood, and maternity leave, is a job in itself. There were long, hard, repetitive days I didn’t always love. There were also millions of beautiful moments and challenges we worked past that made it it such a valuable time to get to be focused solely on becoming a mom. One week after we brought our first baby, Cameron, home from...

Here’s the big truth of my weekend--the 5K I signed up for weeks ago, that I had really been looking forward to and running regularly in anticipation of was this weekend--I did not run it. It was moments away from being canceled due to morning thunderstorms, and while it was not canceled, I knew running in a downpour was not wise. Of course as I watched the clock strike 9, the race start time, the rain in fact let up and stayed at bay for well over the time it would have taken me to finish. I was real, real bummed about that. Of course there were other very good moments in our weekend--toddler playing, trips to the library and walks outside between rain storms. Oh, and also a “make up run” I did on my own anyway.

Check it out, our basement murphy bed is done! Isn’t she looooove-llyyyyyy. Isn’t she wonnnnn-der-ful. Isn’t she preeeee-ciousssss. Less than one minnnnn-ute old. I’m--can you tell?--happy with how this turned out. As I hoped and predicted, it tucks neatly away under the bulkhead. And painting it the wall color helps it to blend in as I wanted it to. Today our handyman came back to the house and spent half the day installing. He did an amazing job--getting it fit perfectly into the wall, cutting around to snugly fit the baseboard, doing some on the fly troubleshooting. The mechanism makes opening and closing it super easy. When it’s open it feels nice and spacious and comfortable. We certainly debated over this project. It was a big expense and took a lot of time, planning and effort. But in its completed state, we’re thrilled. It’s exactly what we were looking for to give the right amount of guest space to our house. Now some details… you may notice there are ...

Annnnd she’s painted. For those following our basement murphy bed build project we last spoke when our handyman delivered the wood pieces to us for painting. (For those not tracking you can catch up on this riveting content here: part 1 , 2 and 3 .) This was, honestly, if possible, less fun than it looks. Each piece needed two coats of paint with a light sanding in between. There are a lot of pieces. A lot of weird angles. And my back hurt from bending all around to paint these after days of toddler wrangling. While I’m still at a 100 in terms of excitement about this project this doesn’t look any less like a boring pile of wood to me than I’m sure it looks to you. I trust these pieces (based on the build plan I found and reviewed with our handyman) will all fit together into one successful, cozy spot for guests to sleep but… will they? A word on the paint color--we went with a light gray that matches the basement walls. This isn’t exactly a piece of furniture I want to ...

Greetings from my couch. We had two real plans going into this weekend and filled in the rest with all kinds of stuff. Like family pizza night, an amazing long run, babysitting a friend’s babe so they could go out for a date (and can return the favor next weekend!), murphy bed work (more on that coming soon), football watching parties and more. One of the best yet unsung moments of the weekend was pulling out a freezer bag of sweet potato peanut stew and having an instant (as in Instant Pot, but also can be made in a CrockPot) Sunday dinner. After doing All The Things I was just not down for cooking a feast and per usual that stew did not disappoint.

Last we left off in the saga of our murphy bed build, we had a bed and mechanism and were waiting to buy wood. We’ve made some progress since then. I met with Tom, our builder, at Home Depot about a week ago. We bought all the wood needed for the bed. While I was vacationing , Tom was working hard cutting and drilling and getting all the pieces ready in his garage. Yesterday he dropped them off in our garage for us to paint. Because there are so many pieces it’ll be easier for us to paint them and then have him assemble them all. Once we paint everything and call him back, the bed will just need a quick and simple assembly! There are a bunch of unknowns with this project, still. Our “design” for this murphy bed is so simple it’s basically nothing. Our plan is to get the murphy bed built, then assess what adornments we want to make from there--molding, handles, side shelves, etc.

It’s me, the professional vacationer. It just so happened this past weekend that we were free and my in-laws were also free to babysit landed on the weekend after returning from our last family vacation . No complaints here. We got on the road fast to make the last ferry across to the island Friday night. It was SO windy our car was being pushed around on the highway. The Mackinac Bridge was closed to some vehicles. It was dark and cold with violent winds when we boarded the ferry. It was a verrrrrry rollercoaster-y ride across the lake. I was super freaked out! Beyond that travel blip our weekend was so great. We biked around the island, up and around the Grand Hotel, shopped, ran, walked into the island a bit to explore, taste tested all the fudge shops, got drinks at The Pink Pony, and--the piece de resistance--took a mid-day nap. Take a look at the island in its early fall beauty.

Ahhhh. That’s the sound of me marveling in a state of post vacation--a lower resting heart rate, unruly eyebrows that barely got plucked and an appetite that demands gourmet desserts every night. We clearly can’t stay in vacation mode forever, but man was this past week away up north with my family nice. Time blends together in a weird way on vacation. I never know what day it is until it’s the day before leaving and then I dig my heels in as much as possible trying to stretch out the job. I have no memory of specific days, but we did go to the beach twice to play in the water and sand and see little fish and to be mesmerized by Gpa and uncle E playing beach tennis. We spent time in toy stores and on play structures and on nature walks and shopped downtown. We visited a farm and saw animals and went on a hayride. We ate gelato, ice cream, fudge and cookies--all a first for Cam, and almost all a hit (sorry fudge). We went on a home tour. C learned what chalk is and pointed and...

Does this count as a weekend recap if I'm still on weekend? I'm on vacation this week. It's glorious. Time is slow, responsibilities are minimal, the weather is perfect. I've got nothin' else but didn't want to miss my weekend notes streak. 

Attention house guests: we now have a mattress for you! I snagged a great Labor Day deal on a mattress before we left town for the long weekend . Tonight Ben went out with our neighbor and his truck to bring it home. So now we have a lovely coil and foam (not air!) mattress on our basement floor. Next to it is a box that contains the murphy bed mechanism--the thing that helps open and close the bed smoothly. Now we’re really ready for our builder Tom! I’m very much a follow-through-er but there’s something about big home projects that always makes me nervous. Maybe we’ll hit insurmountable hurdles. Maybe it won’t get finished. They always do get finished though, even if there are some hiccups. We’ll see how this one goes. Next up: meet up with Tom at Home Depot to buy materials.

Yes fall weather. Yesssssss! I’m so glad we had nice weather this weekend because we had stuff. to. do. Friday night we took Cam out for our first family Friday pizza night. He ate two pieces of ham pizza, plus a snacky bar, plus a couple croutons. It was a good night. Saturday we met up with friends with babes at the Eastown Streetfair. I think there was art and food and stuff. I really didn’t care because I was too thrilled watching my sweet boy run all over the place exploring new things including a weird local real estate company mascot (a big large gray bird he was obsessed with). That night we had our neighborhood 8th annual block party. It was so fun x 2. Tons of neighbors were out, tons of really good food showed up, also there was a bounce house, mini golf, kiddy cornhole and a craft station. So many friendly neighbors were there, so many kids, and I was just feeling real gushy with gratitude we landed in this neighborhood. I was also feeling gushy from all the pasta...

It’s hard to have a good long weekend when you feel cruddy. Such was the weekend for C, so such was the weekend for us. Still we had a nice time being in town with family to spend time together. Ben went to the MSU game. I ran twice with my brother and went out to breakfast with him babyless. We saw friends and spent lots of good time catching up with them at a couple’s bridal shower. Now we’re home again, cleaning up the yard, restocking the fridge, and getting ready to dive back into another week--and soon, fall.

Mamas looking to feed hungry children good things, granola fans, peeps who are ready for warming cinnamon laced fall inspired foods--gather round. I made this oatmeal bake last week as a breakfast solution for my little boy, and he’s loving it. And so am I. It comes together quick with mostly pantry ingredients and makes really great on-the-go soft, filling breakfast bars. Once cooled I slice my bake into bars and wrap them in tin foil. I pull them out fast and micro them for 30 seconds for a really yummy start to the day. Baked Oatmeal Bars Modified from All Recipes Ingredients 3 cups rolled oats ¼ cup maple syrup ¼ cup brown sugar 2 teaspoons cinnamon A dash of nutmeg 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 2 eggs ¼ cup melted butter 2 teaspoons vanilla extract ¾ cup dried cranberries, blueberries or diced apple Directions 1. Preheat oven to 350 2. In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients 3. Stir in milk, eggs, butter and vanilla extract 4. S...

Woo! We’re having a murphy bed built! This will be a long road of a project, so I thought I’d blog through it. Chapter 1: Why, though? We have a lot of guests stay with us, and a lovely finished basement (with kitchenette and bathroom!) that's perfect for them. However our air mattress game is losing steam (pun intended), and our big open basement is not much of an actual guest “room”. Our long term plan is to set up a biggg sectional down there for family movie nights, kiddy sleep overs and MSU football parties--a dream that we really, really don’t want to compromise with a sleeper sofa. Chapter 2: Background on the build I’ve got a local handyman who we’re working with for this project. He’s got skillz, is flexible and very into dreaming/discussing the project plan. I have high hopes he’s gonna build us something great. The height of our basement won’t allow a traditional vertical murphy bed. (Don’t forget the total height of this build is bed length PLUS six-ish inches...

Let’s not talk about this weekend that literally contained blood, sweat, tears and every other possible body fluid. Let’s instead talk about how great Friday night was. It was our one year of parenting celebration dinner party with two other couples who are also new parents with a babe around C’s age. These two other women were a huge reason why I stayed afloat this past year. Their husbands are equally great and can swap dad jokes with B so fast and furiously you’d assume they’d been at this for years. The six of us treated ourselves to a fancy dinner at New Hotel Mertens with apps and wine and cocktails and duck and how-did-you-cook-that-meat-so-so-good??? Beyond the food it was such a really, really great night. One of the women gifted me and the other with this framed picture--the first picture of us new moms together, walking our babes, talking, troubleshooting and celebrating each other. It’s the most beautiful picture meaning so many things.

Below is a blog post I wrote for my doula's website in her "Self Care In Real Life" series. "K" and "A", are my closest mom friends and the most recent of additions to my social and support circles.   “Sippy cups with straws. Who is doing this? Discuss.” This was one of the recent texts to come across my mom’s group text. This text is filled with memes, articles, jokes and support. It would take days to scroll all the way to the beginning of this text group which started last summer. It’s been my lifeline, an outlet, and a unique way I practice self care. “What’s the future looking like up there? Is your babe walking yet?” K & A--the other two moms in my group chat--also have one or almost one year olds like me; they’re also working moms like me; they’re also first time moms like me. We’re learning as we go and we’re learning from each other. “Throw up vs spit up, how do you tell the difference? We knew of each other before we got preg...

Why aren’t we more into meatloaf? Am I 40 years too late to this party? I don’t care, I made meatloaf the other night for the second time in my life and it was good. It was super soft, melt in your mouth like a really good burger. And it came together fast, with no laundry list of ingredients AND it reheats so well. So there. I’m on the meatloaf train. And so is C, and he’s the greatest boy on the planet, so with both of us aboard maybe you should jump on too. Real Easy Meatloaf Based off this recipe Ingredients 3 slices of sandwich bread--pulsed in a food processor into crumbs ¼ cup milk 1 pound ground beef 1 pound pork 1 small onion, grated or whirled up in your food processor 2 cloves minced garlic 1 egg lightly beaten Salt and pepper 1 tablespoon thyme, sage or rosemary--or heck, a mix of all three ½ cup ketchup 1 tablespoon brown sugar Directions 1. Preheat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray. 2. Mix bread crumbs and mil...

We’re back from a four day long vacation. We spent a long weekend just south of South Haven with family in a rental cottage. We were five minutes from Lake Michigan and constantly in a state of chill and fun times. Over the weekend we blueberry picked, beach dwelled, strolled town, cooked out and chased a giggly little boy in circles around the cottage. We made smores over a campfire just about every night. I got over halfway in a really good book. We watched C dance and taught him how to say “hi”. One of the best parts of having a kid is getting to share his joy with people we love. We got to do a lot of that this past weekend--plus got to relax as parents a bit, too.

We were on the East side of the state for my brother-in-law’s college graduation party this weekend. We made a trip of it and spent some time with family, friends and Ikea. It was a lot of people and a lot of movement for me as an adult, I was completely amazed by how well C did with it all. Even at the graduation dinner party, where 40+ people were tightly wandering around a small house, our boy was cheesing it up and having a great time. He’s simply the best.

Beach? Zoo? Library? Brunch? I had lots of ideas coming into last weekend. On Saturday we went to the farmer’s market where we fed C fresh blueberries during our stroll. Later we went to a new-to-us zoo, Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park . C loved the bats the most. It was a hot, hot day so we didn’t stay very long. On Sunday we went for a long morning walk, and had great intentions of beating the heat by visiting the library later. Unfortunately they were closed so we ran errands instead. In the afternoon we filled up the kiddie pool and splashed around for a while and then layed on the hammock. No wild weekend to report--just a good, tiring one.

Last weekend was so good I didn’t want it to end. Making dinner Sunday night felt like admitting defeat. Tears! But we were hungry, and I was too busy weekending to do lunch prep for the week. I took stock of the fridge and dreamed up a new recipe on the spot. One I knew Ben was going to really, really love. And love it he did. So much that when he took leftovers to work on Monday he texted me to say I had to write this recipe down. So here it is. A great Sunday dinner, happy family and yummy leftovers--all of that is so good I can almost forget the sadness of a weekend end. Summer Sunday Spaghetti and Meatballs Ingredients 24 meatballs--I buy them cooked/frozen and microwaved them to dethaw 2 bell peppers--one red, one yellow Half a small red onion A whole lot of minced garlic Pasta--in some sort of shape. Half a box. 1 jar of tomato/basil tomato sauce ¼ cup of heavy cream Basil--a lot! At least 10 leaves Salt, pepper and red pepper flakes Directions Do what yo...

What a really, really, really good weekend we had. Friday we went on a date night and Saturday we took a family trip to the beach. Because a drive out to Lake Michigan + crowds feels a bit much still we opted for a local metro park with a splash pad, small inland lake beach and plenty of space to sprawl out. C loved it! He sat in the shallow water splashing and exploring and waving around his water toys. Mega success, especially with an awesome sun tent I recently purchased. Sunday we prepped and hosted a family party for two other couples and their near 1-year-olds. I made a waffle bar and this beyond yummy egg casserole which was a total hit, and totally easy. I’m grateful for the good social time with good friends and the fact that there are some leftovers.

The young professionals group at my work was offering tickets to a Grand Rapids Symphony outdoor concert event. Brilliant, I thought! I chatted with my friend who is the head of the young professional group and she said family, plus babes, were more than welcome. Extra brilliant! So last night we packed up some toys, an outdoor blanket and dinner and drove out to the local ski slope (lol at it’s “slopeness”, more like a bump under the rug) for the concert. There were tons of people, a big outdoor amphitheater set up and a beautiful night perfect for music and new experiences. The concert didn’t get started for awhile so we ate dinner and fed Cam his ultimate fave food—red grapes—and let him walk around to flirt with the over 70 crowd. When the music got going he was very focused and curious. I was thrilled he got to experience something out of his norm. We stayed well past his bedtime. While packing up he started flirting with three 10-year-old girls, who came over to ooh...

Over the weekend while I was busy celebrating other things I hit my five year anniversary working at Steelcase. In that time I’ve worked in two different roles, reported to four different bosses--including my favorite boss of all time, made lots of really great friends and traveled (for work) to Cleveland, New York , Palm Springs , Las Vegas , Boston , D.C ., Chicago and Strasbourg, France . Since starting at Steelcase I got engaged , got and gave up a dog, bought a house, got a new car , got married , got pregnant , had a baby , and bought a new house . Within the last five years I was in a major car accident with coworkers (right after my first year ), saw a new CEO take power, had a huge hand in launching a new website/platform , was rewarded for crazy hard work with a big off-schedule salary raise, was in a work photoshoot, switched to work in a different building on campus, left for a 12-week maternity leave, made a fool of myself in front of said new CEO at least twice ...

I was in Party City with my brother on Saturday when I realized Cam had never seen balloons before. Can you imagine never having seen balloons before? Good news--he loved them. And he loved the rest of his first birthday party, too. Maybe minus the smash cake. But we’ll get to that. I purposefully wanted his birthday party to be small. We invited our siblings, our parents and our grandparents. I didn’t want Cam to be overwhelmed at his own party. I wanted him to have fun and do his own thing and to be able to recognize everyone he saw--and he did, and I was so happy for that. We rented out the clubhouse at my grandparent’s condo so we had tons of great open space. The only “theme” I followed was bright colors. My favorite part of his party was his “photobooth”. I taped inexpensive tablecloths to the wall and floor, added a homemade “ONE” pendant and balloons, and put his high chair right in the middle of it all with my cheap phone holding tripod across from him. Everyone to...

You’re one today, Buster Brown! I’ve been excited for this day, and excited every day, for a while. My boy is a mobile, independent, curious, smiley ball of light. I could be sad about his baby days which certainly feel behind us now—and a part of me is. But more than that I’m amazed, proud and honestly shocked because we did it. We’re doing this parenting thing everyday and doing something right. Ben and I, we’re doing it. And of course, so excited, because Cam, look at the boy you are. And I can’t wait for the boy you’ve still yet to become.

My mom was in town this weekend to keep me company while Ben was at a bachelor party . We did the standard summer weekend thing: lunch out, farmer’s market, a long walk, and baby wrangling--but also strudel making. Both my Auntie Rae and grandma were/are long time strudel makers. The original recipe belongs to at least my great grandma Regina, if not someone farther up the family tree. Auntie Rae and my grandma use the same recipe but, much like their personalities, their strudel is quite drastically different. I’ve had the strudel recipe for a few years now. It’s in the wedding cookbook my sister made for me--a bright teal professionally published book with recipes from family and friends. During babe’s nap times my mom and I took a maiden voyage into strudel making. The recipe is simultaneously detailed and sparse. It’s obviously a historic, dash-of-this, pinch-of-that, make-it-with-love, use-your-gut kinda thing. And much like Auntie Rae, my grandma, my mom and myself our ren...

We’re almost always on the floor together. C is busy flipping pages of a book; then testing how the sides of his toy basket bend; then picking at the buttons on his stuffy, Kitty Kitty; then pulling himself up on the ottoman to see what he can grab next to get to the knobs on the built-in cabinets. Mom life at 11.5 months means mostly staying out of the way. I let him explore and move on his own and pop in for a random kiss/squeeze or to challenge him in his route. Do you know faucets turn on? Can you find the yellow cup under the blue cup? How do you clap your hands? Let’s see you wave! Try to get water out of this sippy cup on your own! I’m in awe of his opinions, drive, problem solving and smarts. He knows he’s not suppose to touch the curtains--I can tell by his grin as he looks back at me while he slowly approaches. He REALLY wants to open and close doors and will not be pleased if you don’t allow that. The other night he learned frog kicking his legs prevents me from putting ...

I think I may have set a new record. I believe this is my fourth time baking a crap ton of chocolate chip cookies for a bachelor party Ben is attending. For Andy I baked 100. For Allan, 159. This time I baked and baked until I ran out of all the ingredients. I just packed up the last batch. 192 in total. You might think that’s overkill, but I thought 100 was and it didn’t last a full 24 hours. I know the 159 stretched further but I’ve yet to witness a single cookie come home. And until I do… I’ll keep baking. UPDATE: The boys in fact did not eat all the cookies! Ben reported several bags (each bag had 18 cookies) were remaining and he sent them home with the guys. Success!

We don’t live near family, which means C won’t grow up with a ton of face time with his aunts, uncles and grandparents. Especially during his super impressionably early years I wanted to make sure he was getting to know everyone. Enter C’s family poster. I copied this idea from a blogger I follow, but tweaked it for my budget. This collage on Shutterfly was perfect for us. Since Shutterfly is constantly running big sales/discounts I was able to snag this on the cheap. Important tip if you want to follow suit—tape this up really well! C was enjoying picking at the corners and trying to pull it from the wall until I taped the sides down. I’ve had this up for about a month and a half and it’s still in great condition from plenty of exploring, slapping and poking.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…. We returned today from a five day, 4th of July centered vacation. And it was great. We spent out time on the East side of the state with family, friends and sometimes just doing our own thing. We went swimming four times. Walked the mall. Played on playgrounds. Went out to dinner. Tried new foods. Also, C WALKED! We’d seen him once, maybe, accidentally take a independent step before but on Friday he actually took off piecing 3-4 steps together at a time before sitting down. We got him to repeat a whole bunch of times, capping off with a 6 step marathon. We’ll be celebrating his birthday in two weeks and I’m wondering if he’ll be running circles around us. That boy. He’s so great.

The couple who lived here before us was way into their yard. So into their yard I have a better-told-in-person story about a spat between us related to my post on a neighborhood forum asking for yard help considering I had my hands full with a then three month old. Anyway. The yard is full of healthy, hearty annuals that popped back to life after winter’s thaw. I’d love to do more maintenance and taste wise but in this season of life I don’t have the time or desire to make time for it. That bummed me out until I realized a small side bed was blooming with lavender and thyme. I added two small basil and rosemary plants and boom—created my own herb garden. The contained space makes my garden feel full and allows me to tend to it, when I can, quickly. I also got on my potted planter game, investing in a couple big ones to go on the front porch and back deck. My gal is to do Spring/Summer arrangements, throw some mums in for fall and create a reusable “winterscape” that’ll st...