Dana Burland

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 ...