Dana Burland

Remember all the rug scenes from The Big Lebowski? It's nearly impossible to explain quickly if you haven't seen the movie, but I'll do a terrible job trying anyway: a loser of a man (The Big Lebowski/The Dude) has an area rug he loves which is peed on by a home invader who accidentally invaded his home instead of a different man named Lebowski he was suppose to target. The majority of the movie is about the Big Lebowski seeking justice for his peed upon rug. In a strange twist of events I've found myself running parallel to this thread of the movie: I have a brand new rug I love, and there's a quite real risk it's going to be peed on.   This rug is the third iteration to lay in our living room in three years. For a series of just really stupid reasons the two before this one were wrong (despite keeping one for two years!) and I ended up returning one and selling the other to land on this, the Rug Of Perfection.  And now, just days after its arrival, we've b...

Oooh wee things are happening around here! If you asked me in early April what our upcoming house projects were I’d tell you absolutely nothing. But when we did a little Spring analysis around the yard, well, some projects popped up. Namely, the deck. The orange paint on it was chipping wildly, exposing raw wood and making it dangerous for our little boys to be on. That maintenance factor alone made me want to completely blow it up but instead, with the generous help of our hard working dads, we’re re-finishing it to last for a long time. Photo from the listing of our house, some paint chipping is already obvious Over Memorial Day weekend B and my dad sanded almost all the paint off the deck floor. It’s about 3-4 hours away from being ready to be stained. My father-in-law has been hard at work priming and painting the railings and pergola white. Current image of the stripped deck and paint starting to go up on the pergola We have some other big plans for this space with a new outdoor d...

There are a couple things I know will remind me of this weird quarantine time once this is all over: yellow tulips (which I buy when I can since we’re spending enough time indoors to warrant admiration of fresh flowers), the soundtrack of Frozen (insert tired sigh here) and Greek chicken bowls. This is hardly a recipe, much more an assembly. Here’s how I build these lunch-time bowls I absolutely can not get enough of: Step 1: The Base Brown rice/quinoa, lettuce, chicken Step 1.5: Very, very, very lightly dress it Olive oil + lemon balsamic vinegar (could just be regular balsamic but I have fancy stuff!) + salt + pepper Step 2: Veggies Chopped cucumbers, halved cherry tomatoes, pickled onions (https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/quick-pickled-onions), yeah baby, I said pickled onions. Step 3: Blops of yum Feta cheese + a blop of hummus + a blop of homemade tzatziki sauce Yes, it’s a lot of ingredients. It’s not a great recipe for life out of quarantine because you need t...

The best part of my Mother’s Day was Monday night. While Ben was putting A to bed I encouraged C: “Let’s go to your room and read”. I gathered my novel and told him to pick out a book on his own to read on the little couch next to me. I’ll have to re-read the pages in my book I flipped through because while he was doing such a great job reading on his own, I couldn’t help but listen as he perfectly recited “Pete The Cat Old MacDonald Had A Farm” out loud from memory. After he finished he proclaimed, “you stay here, I’ll go clean up the playroom”. I did as directed, listening to the sound of the wood train track pieces clunk into their storage box. He wandered back in to bring me my water bottle, and returned to clean. He came back in to give me a random hug, and returned to clean. He visited again to randomly tell me he loved me, and returned to clean. He took care of me without knowing or needing a special day telling him to do so. “He’s just like his mama,” Ben said...

The “morning meeting” was a daily occurrence at C’s daycare. I really wanted to keep that part of his routine when we pulled him home, so I unrolled my craft paper and drew out an uneven calendar grid for March. And then one for April. And then one for May. Somedays Cam is into it. Other days we move through it quickly, him singing the days of the week song and reporting on the weather while hurrying on to other toys. And sometimes he has no interest in it at all. It took me a while--half of March..and all of April...and the start of May--to not take his inconsistent interest as a parenting fail. But isn’t his reaction just so true to how we’re all feeling right now? Some days feel good and it’s fun to celebrate that. Some days are really, really hard and it feels better to lash out on the lack of normalcy entirely. And some days, many days actually, just seem to pass without realizing it. Nothing special to see. Undocumented by a scribble or doodle. And some people (like m...

Ok, I got “famooshed” and missed some meal planning. I’m back at it now. Last week I tried a few new-to-me recipes. Special shout out to the Instant Pot Vegetable Soup , which was really SO easy and SO good, especially when I went off the rails at the end and added a scoop of homemade pesto. I also made a favorite, sausage, egg + spinach breakfast casserole that made for a super fast and filling lunch last week. This week I’m spiffing up some frozen ravioli with spring veggies, making crunchy turkey taquitos and grilling kabobs. I also have a couple bean recipes on our menu, one is a new favorite--Instant Pot Mexican Beans + Rice. The original recipe is here , but I’ve made a few tweaks to make it even easier. Here’s my revised recipe: Instant Pot Mexican Beans + Rice Inspired from here Ingredients 1 (15 oz) can of black beans or kidney beans, rinsed and drained 1 cup uncooked long grain brown rice 1 1/2 cups water 3/4 cup salsa 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp garlic salt Direct...