Dana Burland

OMG. Look at this glow up! (left: before; right: after) This tight space used to be our family room, and man did we squeeze all we could out of it. The size of this room, and everything we wanted out of our home, kick started the whole construction project. I got so many questions about what this space would become once it wasn't the family room. There's a beautiful gas fireplace in the middle of it. It couldn't just be a hallway. It's no hallway. It's the hearth room*! (*overly fancy name listed on our construction blueprints). The room that didn't seem like it would make sense fits in just fine. It's right between the action--kitchen in the back so I could somewhat monitor the oven, and right next to the great room. Better yet, it's steps away from a little coffee bar we made.  This is so cozy. This is where you can find me when I'm afforded my standard 4 minutes of no-one-needs-me, sit down time ( unless I'm crazy over stimulated then I'm...

We had an epic family holiday baking party today. For record keeping, here’s how the day broke down by the numbers: 4ish hours of baking 7 recipes 1 not done yet because oops I forgot Auntie Rae’s famous strudel dough has to rest overnight in the fridge and my Dad, who is a HUGE fan of this recipe, wouldn’t let me cut corners and freeze it for 20 minutes and call it good 12 sticks of butter 7 cups of various sugars Numerous amounts of chocolate, chopped nuts, butter Crisco which is so gross to work with, and annoyingly just ⅓ cup of molasses so now I have a full jar I’ll never use Basically 2 full hours of dishwashing (shout out to Mom!) 1 foul call where I accused my lovely dishwashing Mom of using too much sweetened condensed milk, but I was wrong, and maybe she’ll forgive me but maybe not 7 cookie plates made for neighbors, bosses and (perhaps the sweetest of all) Lowes paint employees who walked my brother through 99.8% of his extensive condo renovation projects this ye...

C’mon… how is my little guy 5?! Today is A’s 5th birthday. 5 years of joy and laughter with this silly, sweet boy. At 5 A is: … smart . I love when he backseat drivers B saying: “Daddy, put both hands on the wheel, what do you think this is, a aw-tan-ah-mus vee-hic-el?” … silly . He makes up songs, dances, silly names, plays so much imaginative pretend. He really loves to spread joy. … a deep feeler . A good example is when we came upon a sad part of the “Lilo & Stitch” movie and he said tearfully out loud: “this is breaking my heart!” … so able and creative . He’ll construct his own Hot Wheels tracks out of cardboard boxes. He’ll move the bathroom stool around to reach anything he needs–sometimes without concern, although often it’s to make “swimming pools” for his Peppa Pig figurines. … still little . He gets cozy in a newborn-esque fetal position, with his knees tucked under him and his butt in the air. He’s got chubby cheeks, just like me, and a sweet round little ...

Listen up sandwich generation : we're approaching family holiday party time, where a wide range of aged attendees will gather.  If you want to bridge the gap between egg nog guzzlers and lil present hustlers in a way that gets everyone involved, you need these games. I tested these with a range of players between 4 & 74. They were simple and silly enough to level the playing field for (and keep the attention of) all participants. So bring your questionable motor skills, creaky knees and misplaced aggressive competitive spirit. It's game time!   You'll need: Plastic cups : about 20 for 6 people, maybe more if you have more than that Plates : 1 per player. Could be paper or regular dinner plate Regular sized marshmallows : 1 bag for 6-8 people Ping pong balls : or really any similar sized balls that roll--you could get away with anywhere from 1-5 of them  Tape : masking or packing tape Marshmallow Towers Dump a bag of marshmallows into the center of the table. Seat...

It is with a heavy heart and pile of shattered mercury glass I announce this year’s Christmas ornament casualties: twin antique family ornaments. Originally crafted in the early 1900s, these oblong silver and radiant pink ornaments traveled through generations, from home to home, tree to tree, finally immigrating to our home by way of B’s grandmother. These vibrant colored, paper thin glass ornaments weathered many a holiday season, withstanding the test of time, gravity and harsh glares of parents desperately warning small children to be careful by the tree! Alas, BOTH twins met their demise on Sunday, November 24, 2024–mere five minutes apart from each other–by the hands of one overzealous four-year-old. Despite warnings of gentle handling and silent prayer, they were unsaveable from young enthusiasm and desire to hang multiple ornaments at once–always the most fragile ones. Survivors include: Several other beautiful, antique ornaments from Grandma Kay (thankfully!) Neighborin...

Isn’t she lovely? Isn’t she wonderful? Isn’t she precious? Just a few weeks old. Sitting in this room, a year after deciding to “go” on this project, 5 months after living through construction–what an addition! The great room was motivation for the whole project. Our family room before was small, and our kids + desire to host family/friends keep growing. This 400ish square foot room was the exact footprint of our deck before. The deck was great for summer hosting, now this room is great for hosting year round. A big sectional was my dream. Colorful and comfy we can seat 5-7 here. My brother and I built the table behind the couch, and the hanging light was totally his idea. You should see the light pattern it casts on the walls at night. Speaking of light: I was worried about natural light in this room. Turns out it gets great light and privacy. You can stand anywhere in the room and only see trees/sky out the windows. I think we need a side chair in the place of the pink ottoma...

Ok, this is a show stopper! Our home construction kitchen work is complete, and you gotta see it. Our kitchen was lovely before--bright and open. So open I trialed a kitchen island with a mobile kitchen cart and loved that extra working space. The kitchen is in the middle of the house, a busy thoroughfare for living room and bedroom access. Our goal was to make it easier to move across the house, gain more working counter-space and add informal seating. In this project we flipped the peninsula to be a freestanding island, which opened a second walk way and allowed us to add bar seating. WOW. I am SO thrilled with how this changes our day-to-day kitchen use and overall living! When we bought the house I had dreams of baking cookies with the boys in this kitchen. Now we can functionally do that across from each other. Befores & Afters A moment for this island though: Food prep across the island has already happened. Little boy zoomies down the long open space from front playroom to b...

It's been a long season of home construction for us (in case you missed it: Part  1 ,  2 ,  3 , &  4 ). Thankfully we're near the finish line. Ready for its blog debut is our revamped primary bedroom. This was a modest room before, with one reach-in closet we shared and a tiny half bath attached. Our goal was to make this space more functional for two adults. In this construction project we gained a second closet and a shower in the bathroom. I can't tell you how happy I am to have a bed back on its frame in a completed space! It''s been a long summer of musical beds, finding spots to sleep out of dust and still near the boys. Before During After It's not a large room, so tough to photograph. The wall the second window once was on is now part of our expanded bathroom. That window was relocated to the back wall. I'm glad we got to reuse that and keep the nice light we're used to in here.  We gained a second closet, with a little bump out of space to s...

We celebrated a late Rosh Hashana dinner last night, with matzo ball soup and homemade challah (braided by 4 year old A!) and fine maybe pork tenderloin because that was the easiest to feed a crowd. Also present on the table: the shofar. Four-year-old A & 7-year-old C couldn’t resist trying to get a good honk from that horn. I sat by lightly stressed matzo ball backwash create a clog. When I grew up it was the older men that passed the shofar around the table, each hoping to show off with a good deep sound. One Rosh Hashana, I must have C’s age, I asked the men if I could try. My dad’s cousin Andy—a towering 6’5”, almost needing custom shoes for large feet, gentle sweet giant of a man—was the family shofar master. Among all the men at the table, my dad, grandpa, his brother Uncle Hy, Uncle Manny, and my dad’s cousins Andy & Mark—Andy always had great command over the shofar. It's not easy to sound. Your lips need to be pursed JUST right. You need a strong and steady ai...

A closet organizing system! I put it up successfully all by myself! You can get a sense of how far along our construction project is. Plenty not done, but lots coming together, too.  I gotta say, this simple closet system is a jewel in the project crown. I can reach the majority of these shelves!  A simple thing but cool I know how to do this now. :)

Ok that was fun. This morning I did the EGR Reeds Lake Triathon with coworkers as a relay. We had enough interest to put 2 teams together. I swam for "Team A". When we all signed up for this months ago I was hoping to REALLY nail my open water swim practice to show up and crush race day. Which I sorta did, but sort of fell off with too. It was nice going into race day with the excited nerves of ONE discipline vs all 3. Extra nice because it was 48 °  at swim start, and while it warmed up from there I would have struggled biking and running wet.  Wow did I fly in the water this year. My best swim time from this race was 13:36. Today I swam it in 10:24! It did go by fast but it didn't feel crazy fast. There was a lot of "traffic" in the water--lots of bodies bumping into me, arms thwacking me, a man straight up swimming over me. It was tough to navigate. Also much like most of my open water swim races, my shoulders burn out early into the race. I don't have th...

It's chilly in the mornings, now. School has started. Our favorite pool, "The Pancake Pool" (named after the annual Memorial Day Weekend, opening weekend, everyone-is-welcome pancake breakfast) just closed. And we wrapped out a last-hurrah summer trip--to visit relatives who live on crystal clear Avalon Lake in Hillman, MI. We took many pontoon boat rides, kayaked, swam, fished, shopped in town, played and played and played some more. Had a bunch of yummy family meals together--9 of us circling around a big table looking out at one of the best views.  See what I mean? Summer, we loved ya this year.

Update, update! We've got walls! We're more than halfway through the construction . 2.5 months down, about 1 and some change to go. This. Is. Cool.  Everything is coming together. The blueprint is standing up in real life. This project has not been terribly disruptive to our day-to-day, but it's a disruption none the less.  I'd love to have our bedroom back. It would be great not to be sharing a bathroom with the boys. Ideally my clothes wouldn't be in A's closet and the spices and seasonings wouldn't be living in a pot in the front living room.  We're making it work, I just feel scattered. We're only a few weeks away from looking back at this time and saying "hey, that wasn't so bad", and "wow, was the disruption worth it". 

You know what young me really took a backseat on? Advocating for my career growth. Forget backseat, I rearview mirrored career growth aspirations during the years I was having kids, thinking these personal choices made me a worse, less focused employee. I became a manager about 5 years after my similarly-experienced husband. And you know what? Being a mom unequivocally makes me a BETTER manager and employee. Women make up 47% of the workforce, and commonly face this “broken rung” experience: a barrier to leadership advancement due to late initial promotion to management compared to men. Another contributing factor beyond childrearing is the unconscious bias of agentic/male vs communal/female traits. At work men are expected to be confident, assertive, ambitious, dominant, and individualistic. Women are expected to be nurturing, warm, supportive, friendly, and gentle. Research indicates both men and women prefer managers with agentic traits.  The “Catch 22” ...

So you know how we're doing home construction ( intro , part 1 )? We've got some updates! From the outside not much is new from the views here . Thought you might want to see some interior before and durings though: Great Room Taken from just about the same spot, the corner of what used to be the end of the house. All that deck is enclosed!  This backward view might help. Both photos above are taken from near that skinny white window in the corner of the house: Family Room Peep that new couch. :) Part of it is unbuilt still as it won't fit in here but will fit in the new addition. The plywood temporary wall really goes well with the room, don't you think? That plywood has been huge in keeping the construction sectioned off and impacting our day-to-day very little. Check out this view peep behind the plywood: Kitchen Fra ming around the peninsula has come down, as have the pendant lights. This peninsula will be rotated 90 ° to become an island. We'll get a new counte...

I’m a mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend, and a people leader at work. These roles have given me experience managing people–all these roles make me BETTER at managing people. If it’s birthday party expectations of a 7-year-old, who-will-bring-what for Thanksgiving dinner or rallying a work team to launch a new customer support website–I’m actually solidly OK, borderline good at this! Here are the 5 pillars I follow: Care Actually You have to ACTUALLY care about people. You can’t fake care, care between 8am-5pm, or care in context. If you don’t care, it will show. If you do, you’ll be rewarded with benefits: first, genuine human connection; second, success in guiding and influencing. To care you have to trust. Trust a family member will show up as a support person at an important doctor appointment. Trust your team will do their job without micromanagement. Giving others room to succeed (or fail!) without your fingerprints all over it shows you trust and care for them. Clear an...

I might have raced a mile last… in high school? And I don’t recall ever racing others (with care) around a track. When I run I’m more frequently a 5K girly. Last night track racing a mile, though? I flew! C and I both ran in the Magic of the Mile event. They had several kids events. C raced, and won!! the 6 & under 200 meters. He’s a sprinter, with a fantastic kick at the end that JUST powered him past another kid at the finish line. I’m even more proud that he was apprehensive and wasn't sure he wanted to race until a moment before the start. AMAZING! I signed up for the women’s 7:15-7:59 mile heat. This was my best guess at my finish time having never raced this before. A track mile reminds me of swimming the 200m free so much. It’s an endurance, controlled sprint–not an all out sprint and not a cruise control effort either. I was really proud of my race–started strong, maintained, maintained, and was able to kick a bit at the finish. I crossed third in my heat at 7:03...

The longer I’m in the workforce, the more I learn–especially learning how much I don’t know and need to keep learning. Working at BISSELL , more of the company feels accessible to me to collaborate with. I’d been feeling in increased need to sharpen my business understanding in areas that don’t come as natural to me. To fill those gaps I spent the last 4 months completing an online Mini MBA program through Miami University (of Ohio). Compared to a full MBA (like the GVSU one I watched Ben spend 3 years tackling ), this is VERY mini, and a certification, not a degree. It’s also fantastic. The program had 5 courses (Executive Judgement & Decision Making, Innovation & Management, Financial Acumen, Inclusion & Belonging and Enhancing Market Presence) totally about 40ish hours of effort. The lessons were all pre-recorded videos with Farmer School of Business (Miami’s MBA school) faculty with real insights from Miami alumni experienced in their industry. I loved the naviga...

Silly story time that just sums up being a mom right now: Yesterday I needed to pick up C & A early from their summer activities for dentist appointments. I was pre-patting my own back for giving myself plenty of time, remembering to bring them snacks and water in the car, etc. Lol me. C is at a day camp nearby he loves. The only drama is if you pick your kid up earlier than normal pick up hours, it’s a true gamble where your kid is. In 1 of 5 gyms? In the pool? In a classroom? In the barn? On the soccer field? In the Gaga Ball hexagon court? It took a while to locate him in gym 5. A counselor will bring him up I was told. Many minutes later: A counselor is not bringing him up—you go get him I was then told. Down to gym 5. Up again. Out to the barn to get his stuff, slowly because he’s gotta say “bye” to all his friends and he’s slogging from a long day in the sun. Now I’ve got 10 minutes to get A and get to the dentist. Tight, but possible. *Field several questions from s...

I have so much to tell you...  Most important first: homemade rice crispy treats really, really , need to be made with a handful of unmelted mini marshmallows stirred in at the end.  Also, we had a wild week of home construction. Last we spoke our deck was gone ! In one week, look at her now: I love the interior view of mature pine trees from the windows. Well... wood cut outs, but you get it. Next news: I had a great time visiting a dear friend and her beautiful baby girl in Pennsylvania the week before last... but I brought home COVID as an airport souvenir. The trip and baby were worth it, but I didn't feel great this past week, which was a bit of a problem given I had a triathlon scheduled.   Truthfully I hadn't been feeling this triathlon since training started. So, it was a wise move to downgrade from the Sprint to the Super Sprint--cutting my distances in half to a 300 meter swim, 6 mile bike and 1.5 mile run.  It was definitely doable and fun. Such short...

Yeah baby, it’s time for another round of home construction. And this time it’s a big one. We’re getting an addition built in the place of our deck. This new 440 square feet will mostly be a big great room where we can more comfortably build memories with family and friends. It’ll also include a little extra umpf for our primary bedroom–turning out current primary half bath into a full bathroom with a new shower, and adding a second closet so Ben & I can each have one of our own. While the construction crew is at it, we’re making a minor change to the kitchen–rotating the existing kitchen peninsula to be an unattached island. This will gain us more workable counter space, give us new counter seating and will open a new secondary walkway from one side of the house to the other, alleviating current traffic jams. Demo started last week. Boy is it wild to see the deck completely gone. It had been such a big staple of the house, and honestly a space we did use and enjoy a lot–w...

They did it! Even in the rain!  This past Sunday I hosted our neighborhood's 3rd bi-annual kids fun run. I first started this last Spring, inspired by a friend who spun up her own neighborhood 5K Turkey Trot for Thanksgiving. It was such a hit I hosted another in the Fall, and now we're up to three. This is such a fun, easy event.  First: a post on the neighborhood Facebook page with a date and time. I also put up two homemade signs at our entrances a few days ahead of time.  Next--the set up: a table in the garage with paper and markers for kids to make their own personalized race bibs. A snack table of course, with water and granola bars. Some lawn chairs for the parents, yard toys/chalk out for post race play and a portable speaker with pump up jams. Then, race! Depending on the turn out I'll run a heat of younger kids, then older kids (to prevent a trample). Starting and finishing line is at the end of our driveway. I have a very official race stick with some flags on...

It all started 5 months ago. Well, it started a bit before that with my 6 and 4-year-old doing occasional “brother’s sleepovers” together in each other’s rooms. At first the mood had to be right, and they both had to opt in, which didn’t always happen. Then, some time around Christmas, it just clicked for good.* Since then they’ve been exclusively sleeping in the same room. We’ve had many mannnny iterations of bed set up to accommodate this. Mattresses on the floor, sometimes finding them both in the same twin size bed in the morning anyway. Their bond right now is deep and sweet. They play together, joke together, and dress similarly. A has gravitated more toward soccer and football because C likes to play. C embraces more of A’s favorite TV shows and movies so they can watch together. They know and play with each other’s friends, attend and cheer each other on at soccer games, swim lessons and piano practice. They prefer being together. *For the time that this lasts, why woul...

Is it even a family vacation if one of your kids doesn’t drop their brand new beloved sunglasses into the bear pen at the zoo RIGHT after you asked this child to be careful NOT to drop their brand new beloved sunglasses into the bear pen at the zoo? That and a lightly skinned knee were our only vacation casualties. Overall, we had a big, huge win. We spent 4 days in the Smoky Mountains for our annual just-the-4-of-us trip. It was SO great. We hiked every day. The first day we walked 5 miles! Laurel Falls with its VIEWS, twisty path with sketchy steep drop offs leading to an 80 ft waterfall. Wowow. Meigs Creek Trail we found by accident when looking for another trail. It wasn’t my absolute favorite (I was looking for something else, after all) but it had some really great rock throwing creek options and fun exposed tree root nature steps to explore. Cataract Falls right in town was a good one. Very easy, very popular. A bit too popular, especially at the 40 ft waterfall at the...

Yahoo! I took home some hardware today. Last night (the night before the race) the race director oh so kindly hinted the heat I was in would likely include the top female finisher. Of course I wanted to do my best, but that competitive threat sent me into a late night pace setting frenzy. I do well under pressure.  I finished faster than last year (my overall time, swim, bike and run times), and my effort was good for 2nd place for overall women and 1st place in my 30-39 women's age group.  What's especially challenging about the structure of these YMCA races is that we go off in heats (groups) of 6-8 people, about every 15 minutes. So you're really only able to race (or see) the people in your group. Where this 26 year old who beat me came from--lord only knows. I never saw her! Never saw the 28 year old who finished right behind me by about 30 seconds either. Maybe she's wondering who this 37 year old rockstar is. 0:-) Anyway, here's how I raced: Swim This is my t...

Are you a Taylor Swift and/or TaylorSwiftandTravisKelce fan? WHY NOT? WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE?! So, I am, as we’ve established. Down the rabbit hole of T&T I started dabbling in Travis & Jason Kelce’s podcast. Are you a Jason Kelce fan because I dare double down on my all caps WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE again! (You’re learning so much about where I’ve been mentally focusing in the last few months…) There’s a segment in the brother’s “New Heights” podcast where they talk about what’s new, typically kicked off by Jason yelling “NEW NEWS!!” New News. It’s simple. It’s fun. A few weeks ago I let it loose on C when he got home from a regular ol’ day of 1st grade. “What’s the new news, buddy?” And wouldn’t you know, like a football loving brother with a spotlight on him–he told me the new news. I heard about how a 2nd grader personally invited him to “play up” on a bigger soccer team at recess. I heard about the time math he’s working on in Mrs. B’s class, and how he's a...

Braggy 5K alert! Sorry, you can skip this, but posting for documentation. I ran a fast 5K today. It was hard, it hurt, I'm happy! 24:53. 9 seconds off my 5K PR. (Man, couldn't I have gone just 9 seconds faster today!?) Good for 36 out of 330 in my age group (females 30-39), and 80 out of 1,191 females racing. I'm faster than I was at 25. Heck yes. I'd be remiss not to humbly mention I later spent 4 hours of this same glorious day painfully trying to switch cell phone providers. And also my 4 year old coughed directly into my mouth.  Rest assured I've been quickly put back in my place. (...but 24:53, though) :) 

I've already forgotten the half hour sifting through gear in the basement closet, then looking for the right bag for it all, having "helpers" undo all the packing, making everyone sandwiches for lunch they would later reject for ski lodge chicken tenders and $273784 hot chocolate, being called to help with getting dressed while trying to get myself dressed--and the pièce de résistance--reminding boys they were in charge of packing themselves toys for the car because "we have a long drive to the ski slope" just to get 15 minutes away from home and hear "Mama, did you remember to pack our toys?" Nope, I've forgotten it all already. Instead I'll remember a 4-year-old attempting to thumbs up in silly big mittens while we rode the magic carpet up the bunny hill, watching my brother patiently coach my son in ski lessons then hearing my son say "Uncle E is a great ski coach", all of us going down the bunny hill together and celebrating our s...

Welcome, winter. We seemed to have gotten it all in two days. This is the deep West Michigan snow that piles up past your knees, puts you in a meal/shovel/meal/shovel pattern for days on end, the kind that keeps a heated blanket on for hours. There’s a lot of cozy, lounging, lack of motivation, hibernation vibes going on over here. I found myself inspired to cook up something new anyway. Soup! I wanted warmth without being gut-bombingly heavy. I needed to use what I had on hand because, well, we couldn’t get a car out of the driveway for a good while. I found a recipe online to inspire me and then switched it up from there. I’ll be happily eating this on repeat. And repeating another activity along with it. Soup, shovel, soup, shovel. Lentil & Farro Spiced Winter Soup Inspired from Life is But A Dish   Ingredients 2 T Olive oil 1 small onion chopped 1 cup chopped carrot 5 cups chicken broth ½ cup farro ½ cup green lentils 1 teaspoon turmeric ½ teaspoon cumin ...