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.