Dana Burland

This time last year I was being showered at work . My coworkers gifted me a Pack ‘n Play, a gizmo I knew I’d need but didn’t yet know how to pop up in 4 seconds after driving across the state in the dark with a snoozing baby way past his bedtime. Nor did I know how lovely a little smooshed face on the Pack ‘n Play mattress would look. This time last year I packed freezer meals for the “apocalypse”. The beef burritos and lactation cookies were so vital I made them many more times over during the first few months of new mom life. The granola bars were key at 4am. The soup packets and tuna cans were never touched. I didn’t know there would be days when lunch couldn’t happen if it wasn’t consumed with one hand or within 60 seconds. This time last year I recapped all the pregnancy must-haves that got me comfortably from first to third trimester. Now the lemon water, 4-mile walks, weekly pregnancy podcasts and surviving my first trimester on potato soup, salmon and apple slices feel li...

I hemmed and hawed before buying an Instant Pot a few months ago. The selling point was a vision I had of coming home from work with arms full and a full night of baby wrangling ahead of me. I could dump, set and forget dinner, play with C, and be rewarded with a delicious healthy meal 15-20 minutes later. The result has… not been that. There’s a decent learning curve that I’ll admit I’m not fully past yet. First time pressure cooking is scary and the directions are in depth and detailed. This also means my secondary goal of purchase--having Ben use it to easily cook some fast family meals--was not a great option. Recipes are also very specific, from cook time to steam release method. Similar to a slow cooker, but even more so, I feel like I have to follow a recipe exactly and have no confidence in creating my own. This takes more of my time because the meal prepping and measuring involved is more than I usually do in my regular cooking. Also, where are those dump, set and forg...

We pushed our house to the max this weekend with friends, food and fun. Saturday we welcomed friends and their babe to stay with us for the weekend. We transformed the basement into a cozy guest/family space for them. That night we had another couple and their babe over for snacks/drinks on the deck. Sunday I put out sweet potato crust quiche, blueberry lemon zest muffins , fruit, toast and yogurt out on the kitchen peninsula for breakfast. In the afternoon we hosted two other families and THEIR babes for a “family party”. The weather was crummy so we grilled burgers, ate a skillet s’more and chatted amongst general babe chaos in the basement. We’re riding the happy high of having so much good friend time—and reflecting on how perfect our home, especially our basement, handles gatherings big and small. We’ve thrown around all sorts of ideas of how to furnish and use our basement long term, but this weekend cemented some thoughts for us in terms of keeping the space open and...

Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.  - Henry Scott Holland (1910) When is the right time? It feels like never. Sometimes it really isn’t right any way you slice it. Sometimes it’s when they’re ready , or when they decide . And sometimes, I think, it’s when a “mission” is complete. For my wannabe-cowboy, En...

We kept the air mattress inflated to host new guests--Ben’s parents. The Father’s Day weekend weather was not so great so we spent a good amount of time inside listening to the Raffi kid’s music station on Pandora and watching C figure out how to play with his ring stacking toy. Man is he smart. We got out to the farmer’s market and picked up some fresh produce for dinner. It’s nice to go out to eat but I also love cooking something fast and delicious at home. Maybe my favorite part of the weekend was when Ben and I snuck away for a bike ride. It feels like forever since we’ve done that together and we’ve never gone out to explore our new part of town. We got a tough, sweaty and fast ride in and thankfully my assumption on directions was correct and beyond a lot of surprise hills we didn’t get lost.

Yesterday I hopped a work bus for a day trip to Chicago to see our Steelcase showroom at NeoCon. NeoCon is a commercial design show where the office furniture world gets together to geek out and show off. There are oh so many beautiful things to see--our showroom was one of them. We really rocked it this year. Our showroom was full of life and light and music and fun and so much color. We had tons of examples of varying work areas from places to focus to spots to meet and collaborate. We had lots of cool thoughts on mixing pattern and print and making work feel both personal and personalized. It just felt like a big visual party. My hard work really wrapped up prior to yesterday’s day trip. I worked on a small but mighty team to get our digital website plans in place to support such an exciting showroom. Specifically I lead the new release of product pages: Nooi , a sleek looking stacking and connecting chair made by an Austrian company we’ve partnered with. Workplac...

My brother was in town this past weekend for the Grand Rapids Triathlon. He crushed it, we cheered and celebrated and some of us might have gotten a smidge emotional they weren’t doing the race too. Sigh. The tri included, we didn’t really stop moving much all weekend. We hit up the farmer’s market, played with a silly teething 10-month-old, went out for an early birthday dinner for my brother, and then of course cheered him on at the tri. It was so fun.

Hey. You wanna be fancy? I’ve got a fancy, but secretly not fancy, recipe for you. It’ll make you feel like you’re a British Royal but really you’re just eating Oreos in your pajamas watching the Royal Wedding on repeat. It’ll make you feel a rich retired lady but really you’re just floating in a pool on an inner tube listening to “soft house” on Pandora while drinking cheap Moscato from a water bottle. You get it. Pretending to be fancy is fun. And next time you’re in the mood, make these salmon cakes. I found this recipe from a blogger I follow (https://pinchofyum.com/yummy-salmon-burgers-slaw). I thought, dang, salmon burgers, that’s too fancy for me. But it isn’t! It was easy! I made them and even my non-salmon-eating husband ate them. He also drank my cheap Moscato so perhaps I should stop introducing him to my fancy things… Then I made it for my brother, who later made it himself for work lunches. And now I hear his coworkers want the recipe—shout out to the soon-to-be fa...

In my mindless TV watching I’ve learned a big rule of improv comedy is “yes, and...”. Replying back in improv that way keeps things moving forward given unpredictability. We for sure had an improv, “yes, and…” weekend. Our weekend was gloriously unscripted. We had no plans except for someone’s water discovery swim class. After that we “yes, and’ed” around town. Should we go to the farmer’s market? Yes, and there’s a snoozing boy in the backseat so how about we pick up some lunch on the go, too? Ok, wanna walk around Festival of the Arts downtown? Sure, and I got a text from friends who want to meet up for a impromptu game night, should we do that? Yeah, what about walking to our new local ice cream shop with Cam? And a playdate/dinner with the neighbors later? Yes, yes, yes to it all. So we were busy, and out and about having fun, which is exactly what I prefer. Now that it’s Monday we can rest, right?