Dana Burland

Here to repot back on a theory proved successful on Christmas morning: bows on gifts. This was the first year I wrapped presents, then tied stain bows around them. Man, they looked SO beautiful! This wasn't for looks though, it was for science. I was testing a hypothesis: might $4 spent on ribbon extend the present opening frenzy of two fast and furious kids by a few minutes? Yes, yes it did. Now... I had to double knot the bows to keep them securely on the boxes, which put a needs-adult-help hurdle in the boys' unboxing. Not awful, and they weren't too bothered by it.  I also wrapped some gifts in nice thick wrapping paper, which I found took more effort and time to unwrap vs the almost tissue paper wrapping paper which already shreds itself while I was wrapping with it. Then there was the BIG gamble: a Russian nesting doll-esque wrapped box in a wrapped box in a wrapped box. A big, 2ft square box ultimately leading to a deck of personalized cards.  With an 8 and 6 year ol...

Ok, I have to tell you about the checkerboard cookie fiasco. I referenced it briefly here , but checkerboard cookies were on our list of Christmas cookies to bake for the assorted treat plates my mom, brother and I gift neighbors and friends. I've made these before. They're exactly what they sound like: sugar cookie dough and chocolate cookie dough, checker boarded into one cookie. They should look like this:  Of course, I was rushing, when it came time to prep for the cookie baking party. I couldn't find the exact recipe I had made before, so I Googled for a new one and went with that. Wrong choice. Very bad choice.  The dough was so sticky. So hard to work with. It was really frustrating. The cookies SHOULD be at least 3x3 like the photo above. I could only manage 2x2 as I was assembling the dough. They were SO wonky. Then they went in the oven... and expanded beyond belief turning from 12 cookies on a sheet pan to one mega cookie. There is no photo evidence of this horri...

Year 2  of our family holiday cookie baking bonanza is in the books. And wow, if I thought we went through a lot of butter last year... This year's shopping totals: 17 sticks of butter 6.5 cups of sugar 19 cups of flour 8 eggs 4.5 cups powdered sugar ...and less insane quantities of many other ingredients. We baked 6, instead of last year's 7, items this go round: Linzer cookies made 'em a little smaller this year, in the shapes of stars. :) Millionaire's Shortbread Bars  but good lord, why is the caramel layer SO challenging??!! Snowballs  a nostalgic classic my family just can't not have Orange Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies these are something special Soft Gingerbread Cookies with Maple Glaze   wowwww you should have seen what a disaster I was trying to sub out the maple glaze for a white chocolate ganache. I mean, the maple glaze from the recipe is good--it just doesn't set very well. I shouldn't have tried to stray, I ended up back at the origin...

My kids stopped eating my go-to oat waffles. No reason why, but one day they were in, the next day they were very mas o menos or 6-7 about them (reader translation: more or less, uncertain), and the day after that a solid nope... where they have remained. Then I broke the waffle iron.  Cool! Never one to quickly learn from the most obvious mistakes, I Amazon'd a new waffle iron over and sought to find a new recipe.  I'm really not interested in crap waffles. If it's a white flour/quarter cup of sugar waffle recipe, I might as well buy Eggos, buckle my seatbelt for a hunger induced fit (from the boys OR myself) 30 min after breakfast and call it a day. But, my last recipe (which was good! Here if you want it!) got rejected. I wasn't easily finding something that still had protein and felt good, so I turned my effort to ChatGPT. Give me a kid-friendly, oat-flour, waffle recipe And oat-flour and kid-friendly... ish it is. I now have one kid (actually my more challenging ...

This is a perfect Thursday dinner. An in office work day, immediately home and back on the go for kid's piano and drum lessons. When everyone reconvenes at home they're hungry--RIGHT THEN.  Look, there are so many crockpot meals out there. A lot are just solidly fine, few are truly good, and if they're truly good they have 47 ingredients and wow, when some call for cooking ahead of items going in the pot... that's just so ugh.  I'm not going to tell you this is the best recipe in the world, but I am going to tell you it's tasty, stupidly easy, probably could be made from items in your kitchen right now, and it's filling too. I'm making this one again and again. Crockpot Chicken Pasta Sauce Ingredients 2-3 chicken breasts onion powder, garlic powder, Italian seasonings, salt & pepper 24-28oz jar of marinara sauce about 3/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (optional) Optional stir-ins: 3/4 cup cottage cheese, chopped spinach, a glug of half and half or h...

...and what a year it was. Both boys were ninjas. C and his friend Theo SPRINTED through the entire neighborhood, ping ponging across the street while the Dads strolled down the middle. Their night wrapped up after two solid hours, a full pillow case of candy, and a sweaty ninja costume. They hit the entire neighborhood, a new PR, and as C proudly displayed on his watch--17K steps. Whoa.  Meanwhile the Moms took A and friend Benny out together. What started as a sprint quickly turned into a walk/run combo. The boys also PR'd, down our long street, around the full corner and cul-de-sac, and back home again. A real highlight was trick-or-treating at our own house, where Uncle E was on duty handing out candy... Trick or treat at your own house?! HILARIOUS! They loved racing to the door to help in handing out candy, too. While the boys' stamina is always new and improved year over year, so many traditions stay the same: Our family friends, former neighbors, with boys similar ages, ...

Omg, my kids ate these! These chicken "kebabs", lightly seasoned with Mediterranean spices, with specks of fresh parsley visible. I will make these again, because they ate them. And they will not eat them that next time, but I will.  Sheet Pan Chicken Kebabs Ingredients 1 lb ground chicken  1/2 cup yellow onion 1/4 cup fresh parsley 3 cloves garlic 1 egg 1 T coriander 1 1/2 t cumin 1 t cinnamon 1 t salt 1 pinch cloves 1/4 t black pepper About 1.5 T olive oil Directions 1. Preheat oven to 425 2. In a small food processor grind the onion, parsley and garlic 3. In a medium bowl, combine ground chicken, onion/parsley/garlic mix, all spices and egg. Mix until combined 4. Add a glug of olive oil to a quarter baking sheet, then spread the chicken mixture into a full rectangle covering the full baking sheet, about 1/2 inch thick, flatten evenly 5. Use a knife or bench scraper, separate in lines about 1.5 inches thick. Drizzle remaining olive oil evenly on top to coat chicken complet...

Ok. This is it. This is THE recipe. No, my family will not settle for bread maker challah (which is good, but not AS good, and also not impressively braided). No, the original online recipe won’t do either, as it has resulted in burnt bottoms too many times for me in two different ovens. It has to be this way. Yes, you have to dedicate about a day of babysitting this recipe/bread. Yes, this simple recipe with few ingredients might cause you to sweat and swear up a storm wondering if anything is happening. Yes, once I did throw away the dough after rise one, because it looked like it was doing NOTHING, just to find in my perfectly warm and dark garbage can it had risen beautifully the next morning. Oy. Anyway. Here it is, saved for all time. Best Challah (Egg Bread) Adapted from Smitten Kitchen The original recipe author says three risings always makes for the tastiest loaves, even better if one of them is slowed down in the fridge. If you do one in the fridge, it can sit...

It was a REAL gamble to not make Auntie Rae ’s “brown slop in a bag” brisket for Rosh Hashanah this year. Her brisket was THE brisket growing up and don’t you dare tell my grandma I said that. Anyway, I strayed from the path and made Smitten Kitchen’s Braised Brisket with Onions instead, and AUNTIE RAE I’M SORRY! But THIS is it. It was easy, it was BETTER made 1-2 days in advance (omg, thank you), and it had amazing tenderness and depth of flavor. I do have recipe alteration notes… ones important enough to capture this in blog perpetuity. A blog post doesn’t have the same nostalgia as a 30 year old printed recipe with beef broth splatter on it, though. For all nostalgic moments, there’s a new core memory. This New Year it’s my 8 and 5 year old boys blowing the shofar, seated around a table they carefully helped set for family–complete with handmade name place markers, guest portraits on watercolored paper, AND Auntie Rae’s hand-me-down napkins. Boy would she be hysterically ye...

Writing to you freshly showered, kinda sore and very tired post my second EGR Reeds Lake Triathlon Relay.  I relayed with the same crew from last year --a current and former coworker, both who are LIGHTENING fast in their respected legs of the race. I, however, was the slow poke. Sort of.  Last year I trained up big time for the relay, and freaked myself out swimming at almost full hyperventilation for a crazy 10:24 PR. But the thing about open water swim courses is that it's just kinda different every year. The water current, the visibility, the traffic of other bodies in the water.  This year I swam 14:43. It definitely felt more in control and less frantic, more paced vs all out sprint, and admittedly I wasn't in as A+ swim shape. But what's interesting is results wise... there absolutely are some relay swimmers faster than me, but not a ton and very few drastically faster. Visibility this year was for sure rough. And last year the relay group was sent into the water i...

Did you also find yourself hiding in some prickly bushes today, or was it not your youngest's first day of Kindergarten? Look, I had to. Just like I had to follow the bus 3 years ago when my oldest went off to Kindergarten. How could you NOT need to visually confirm a sweet boy with chubby cheeks and a backpack covering shoulders to back of knees arrives to his new unknown of elementary school safely? Today it was my youngest guy's turn--day 1 of Kindergarten. So, I drove the opposite way from Daddy and both boys (they're drop off AM kids now) and returned to my elementary school parking lot bush hiding location. Out of sight from my kids, but not aggressively so that parents/teachers/other kids were freaked out by the emotional woman in the brush.  I watched both boys hop out of Daddy's car. Older bro hyping up younger bro. Holding his hand. Taking him to the pool of other freaked out Kindergarteners. Sticking with him and giving him a parting ways hug. Cue the parenta...

Reporting to you one degree shy of sunburnt, a bit lake smelly, and still unsure what day it is. That's right, we're freshly back from vacation, and it was sooo gooood. We rented a cottage for a week in the Canadian Lakes area--annoyingly not near, nor having anything to do with, Canada. We split our time there with B's family joining for a few days, then mine. Except for one rainy (REALLY rainy) day, every day was a wonderfully sunny repeat of the one before. Our cottage came equipped with two kayaks and two paddle boards. We had a small clear beach before the water got real weedy, and schools of bluegill fish plus a day of sighting the "king and queen"--two pike. We may have increased the fish sighting with consistent Cherrios feedings. Most days we splashed around at our beach and tooled around on the kayaks/paddle boards. Good lord is it cute seeing A in his life jacket sit at the end of the board and hunt for (plentiful) seaweed. There was LOTS of kid snorkel...

Sure I workout, but that's nothing compared to the endurance, stamina and strength built from parenting young boys. Nuthin. Truly I need that AM gym session to keep up with these guys. Case in point: Cam enjoys seeing my steps on my iPhone at the end of the day. Given I don't carry my phone around everywhere so it doesn't track everything, I do carry it when I run. If I go for a rare extra long run, then enter regular weekend parent mode, I can maybe get around 13K--but typically on weekends I'm around 8-10K.  So, Cam gets a kid's watch for his birthday, with a pedometer on it. And he wears it to day camp. That night I ask him like he asks me--how many steps? Reader. 12,284 steps. He clocked 5-6 miles. And was he tired at dinner reporting this? No. Did we go back out to play after dinner where he ran, threw a football around, wrestled? Yes. Was he overly exhausted at bedtime? Of course not.  His watch also tracks sleep, where he reported the next morning 10.5 hours ...

Long time readers MIGHT remember a many year old tradition where I bake a comical amount of chocolate chip cookies to send with Ben when he attends a bachelor party .  Happy to report, I'm back at it today! This time in honor of one of my most loyal cookie monsters, groom-to-be Julian.  I've heard multiple stories throughout the bachelor party years of his cookie consumption rate, including rumor that one night he passed out just to be found the next morning with his hand still IN the cookie container. I applaud the dedication! This is an especially fun tradition because these bachelor parties are all with the same main group of guys--buddies since AT LEAST high school, some before that.  Here's what bachelor party cookie baking has looked like in years past... Andy’s bachelor party 2014: 100 cookies baked Ben’s bachelor party in 2015: no cookie count recorded Allan’s in 2016: 159 cookies baked Joe’s in 2018: 192 cookies baked Jeremy's in 2020: 60 cookies baked Which br...

Oy. Ooof. I've never been this sore immediately after a race--which makes me fear how I'll feel tomorrow. This morning I ran the RTS 10K. It's about 1 mile on road, 3 miles on trail and 2 miles on sand.  This is not my typical jam, and you know what--I don't think it's my new, going forward jam either. The race was fun, different, beautiful, SO hard, and maybe one of those do-it-once races for me. The trail was not wildly technical, but did have exposed tree roots, rocks, leaves, plenty of single file only portions, some decent hills and portions of thick loose sand. That was really unique to maneuver around and made me nervous a wrong step could lead to injury. Then the sand. This is the punctuation mark on the "no thanks!" for this race for me.  There were three up hill dune climbs in loose, deep beach sand, two very steep down hills where we all essentially cross country skied our way to the bottom.  The first dune climb was right out of the trail--shor...

On the last episode of Home Projects, I mentioned an upcoming  patio project . We're proud patio owners! Boy, was it exciting watching that concrete get poured. Great! Concrete dried fast, it looks fantastic and we're having dinner al fresco the next day. Small bummer... our grass is allll torn up. Around the patio, along the side of the house from the small front loader. No problem! B spent a hot afternoon smoothing things out, laying top soil and grass seed. Small bummer... growing grass in the middle of a Michigan summer is tough. And our backyard zone sprinkler system is off until the sprinkler guy can move heads around the outline of the patio. We're out hand watering twice a day. Great! Two weeks later we're seeing small grass pokers! It's working! Small bummer... just then our sprinkler guy shows up and needs to do a bit more work than expected--digging up much of the newly grass seeded area. Big bummer. We're back to square one. On another hot afternoon ...

New Mile PR! Omg, can I tell you about last night? We went to the Magic of the Mile event, a track meet put on by a local running club where everyone races 1 mile, in timed heats against similar speed runners. Last year  was my first time participating. I had no idea what I could race a mile in and surprised myself with a 7:03 finish. Honestly, almost passed out after that one. This year I signed up with a secret goal of running sub 7 minutes. I signed myself up to run in a faster heat, 6:45-7:15. I planned to sprint train leading up… but the one sprint workout I did had me reeling for a week, so that was that. Otherwise I’ve been running… but slllow. I was prepared, as I told my fam/cheer squad, to hang on for dear life. But I hung in there—more than just for dear life! Kept up for lap 1, settled in with the group for laps 2 & 3, and gave lap 4 the rest of what I had. Coming up on the finish I saw the clock and knew I had it: 6:51. Good for a finish middle of the pack, wh...

Next month we're meeting family at a rental lake cottage for some summer fun. Yes, there's beach and that'll provide a lot of entertainment--but I want some other ideas to bring three generations, plus family members who don't see each other often, together.  These games were great last time , but I'm going to trial out these next time:  You'll need: Plastic cups: at least 20. All one color is fine. Paper: plain computer paper will do Straws: one per person Ping pong balls: 2-4 Pens/markers: one per person Scissors Paper Movers  Cut paper into 2in x 2in pieces. Seat al players around a table with a plate, straw and pile of paper pieces in front of them. All at once players will use their straw to suction one paper at a time--moving it from table top to plate--no hands touching paper! The player to move the most to their plate in 30 seconds wins. Balance Ball Tower (good team game) Divide your group into 2-3 teams. Give each team 10 plastic cups and 1 ping pong b...

Remember when we had all that construction done to build an addition where our deck used to be? Man, we love the indoor space SO much. It was 100 times worth it, except... now we have no deck. Should we blow this room up for outdoor space? lol. Soon we'll be getting a patio poured. Try living under that like you did with our deck, neighborhood raccoons! I shouldn't taunt or challenge them... they're under our shed, even going as far as to hoist up a sophisticated concrete step barrier I built up. I suppose I should respect the determination. Anyway, patio.  It'll be just big enough for an outdoor table/chairs and grill. Nothing fancy but it'll be nice to enjoy cookouts outside again.  My brother was SO helpful in getting the temporary wood steps off the house this weekend. We're pretty prepped now, just waiting for a day of concrete pouring! After that we'll have some steps/railing fashioned.  

Want to hear a funny story? About a week ago I saw a post in our neighborhood's Facebook group--a college student home for the summer offering up very reasonably priced family photos.  Great idea. It's been awhile since we've done those. Booked. A few days after I saw a bump/blister pop up on my leg. Odd, but fine. Then another. And more spread across my body.  Ugh. Who has time for this! I put some cream on my dermo gave me for something else a year ago. It did nothing. Shingles again, I convinced myself. Yep, your girl already had shingles once.  With the bumps spreading, my homemade remedies doing nothing, and pictures approaching--I showed up randomly at the dermo's office. An ambush if you will. I said--it's shingles again, probably. The dermo said--it's poison ivy/sumac.  Whew! Except the prescription cream was about $1M, and surely wasn't going to clear. up the rashes before picture day. Thank God for Photoshop, and a lightweight stylish summer kimono...

…you just finished 2nd grade, and feel like king of the world. …you’ve got 1.5 adult teeth in, and so many loose they may all fall out at once. If gappy-front-tooth-C was cute, half-adult-front-tooth-C truly screams BIG KID. …you made a club soccer team, showing immense determination, skill and grit at tryouts–including dusting yourself off and back in scrimmage after a friend’s clete to your ankle drew blood. …you’re diving head first into rock music: The White Stripes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Def Leppard, Foo Fighters, and wow is it fun to sing “Steve’s Lava Chicken” with you. …you got in trouble for something I won’t publicly broadcast on the internet, and experienced a first real consequence. Yeah, you weren’t happy, but also you understood and didn’t make excuses. …your summer freckles are popping out–most notably on the bridge of your nose and on your cheek. You still remember your first one on your ankle, the one I told you is how I knew you were mine–freckle to freckle. …y...

Weee, another Sprint Tri in the books. Yesterday was the Grand Rapids Sprint Triathlon--a favorite race of mine.  My goal was to prioritize fun over fast. I've been recovering from a badly pinched nerve, and trying to respect as I get older I can't train as ruthlessly as I used to. I wanted to prove I could "behave", and also feel accomplished. And I did.  It's been so cold I hadn't trained in open water once, but during the Thornapple River swim, I felt just fine. My pace was relaxed, I felt good.  Good lord do so many people fly past me on the bike. I'm an above average swimmer and below average biker and it is hummmmbling to see so many incredible athletes fly past me like I'm walking. Still, I kept a steady, challenging but appropriate pace the whole ride. The run always feels like a slog, but this year even more so. It was tough to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I kept a consistent pace and backed off a few times when necessary. Even...

Our peonies opened on Friday. Peonies, in the backyard, of our second house, the one we were out growing, and grew, to fit our two growing boys, and their friends, and their family who have become our friends, and extended family and the busy comings and goings of it all. There are SO many busy comings and goings, and it’ll stay that way. In the backyard itself–soccer balls fly haphazardly in the air, the playful “ATTACK!” screams of 7-year-old neighbors reverberate across connected yards, and smoke from fire pit s’more nights wafts around. Still, the peonies quietly bloomed. It’s a shock they grow here. Not only all ^ that, but I have so little attention to give them. Each year I muster up enough time to put cages around them (tomato cages this year: the wrong kind), and have so far kept weeds at bay. Not only did our wedding flower bloom, but they did brilliantly, in the backyard of this busy house and busy life we’ve built together, on our 10 year wedding anniversary. And no...

I dedicate this post to my friend Karen. Or I blame her for it, rather. She was the one who told me about her bread machine. She loves it! Bakes delicious bread at home regularly! I had to have it.  I bought the bread machine. I followed the directions. And I got the dense-est lump of whole wheat bread ever created. Was it edible? Warm and with butter and with your eyes closed--MAYBE. I tried again. The basic white loaf Karen said works for her every time was raw and hollow in the middle. Can raw and hollow even go together in the same sentence? Yes, when it comes to a loaf of bread they can. This one was on me. I didn't have dried milk powder and the Internet said I could sub plain milk. The internet was wrong. Fair. I got the dried milk. I tried again. Fail. Still oddly short, concave, but sponge patterned on the outside some how? I don't know what I did there... Fine. Trial #4. A French bread loaf. Still sunk in! WHY!? But more edible.  Ok. Go #5. Challah. Now... I was told...

It's time for a new year of questionable success with my at-home garden. Last year I was on a hiatus due to home construction near my garden area, which meant this year I needed to start with construction--specifically replacing the end of my garden fence removed by the home reno crew. Now that THAT'S done, it's time to roll. I dropped snap pea seeds into the ground last weekend, and new-to-me scallion seeds, too. The snap peas typically do well, and I already have their chicken wire trellis set for them to climb. We'll see about the scallions. I was maybe a touch late getting both into the ground. In two weeks I'll pick up starter plants: cherry tomatoes, small sweet peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, basil and parsley. The peppers and lettuce are new to me, so I'll be eager to see how those do.  I can hear my mom and brother laughing at "basil" on my list. When I get these starter plants, the basil comes in a 6 pack, and I'm notorious for planting the ...

Training update... we've hit a little glitch. All was going swimmingly (pun intended) until I pinched a nerve in my back two weeks ago while picking up A. Yep, I'm pinch-a-nerve-when-picking-up-your-kid old.  And man, I hadn't experienced that before, and it sucked. So there's the bad news, and thankfully that's all the bad news.  The good news is I had such a strong base of fitness already, and this happened 7 weeks from race day. I can recover from this and get to the starting line just fine.  If my goal wasn't already to run a healthy, happy race (not PR), it is now!  I scaled back training. I've been rehabbing. I already feel a lot better, but not perfect. I'm taking it workout by workout--paying a bit more attention to what feels right and stopping when it feels wrong.  I'm aiming to get back to the training plan...ish, this upcoming week. Maybe not the full workout each day, but closer to it. 

Here we go again. I’ve kicked off another sprint triathlon training plan. I’m locked into a routine for the next eight weeks, prepping for the Grand Rapids Sprint Triathlon on June 7. I love training. The race is fun, but have you ever challenged and surprised yourself on a near daily basis? The discipline, the athletic mindset of it all–THIS is the best. Except this morning. After eating roughly 6 pounds of chocolate covered matzo leftover from Passover , track sprints at 5am just didn’t sound fun… or feel fun, frankly. Some of these workouts just get done vs get done beautifully. My goal for this tri is fun, healthy completion. I specifically would like to NOT PR. I’d like to prove to myself I can train and race with enjoyment, without needing to prove anything to myself. The other challenge, of course, is the family calendar. Piano and soccer and weekend activities all pick up in the Spring–just as my workouts will go from 30-40 minutes to 50-70. It’ll be a balancing act, for s...

B and I saw one of my favorite comedians (Marc Maron) in Grand Rapids last night. He was great, and as predicted — dark, political, mundane, and with a peppering of some Jew jokes. I can so relate to nonchalant, yet chalant , way he talks about his judaism.  Which brings me to Passover, which is this weekend. Another major Jewish holiday to reckon with my religious feelings, and determine what's right to teach my kids. I want Passover dinner to not just feel like another dinner. But what is it we're doing here to set it apart? Are we chewing on bitter herbs to remember the pain and tears of our people enslaved? Are we focusing on the current and continued suffering of Jews around the world? With a 7 and 5 year old? Nope, we're not. Please, PLEASE!, I asked ChatGPT, can you create a semi-secular, kid-friendly, Passover seder reading. And did your girl ChatCPT ever deliver. I made some tweaks to get this even farther in line with what I was looking for. The result is perfect....

Forgive me for my delay in reporting the news: it's officially Spring! I knew it about two weeks ago, the same way I know it every year--one wreath, two birds, and three eggs. My Spring wreath goes up every year after the Valentine's door hanging heart comes down. There's still plenty of snow, but it's me wishing. It's winter business as usual for awhile until the birds come. Maybe they're sparrows? Finches? I don't know, but every year it's the same thing. The two birds arrive, scoping out the top of the wreath at first. Then I'll spot one on the wreath with a twig in its mouth. Then I blink, and a nest is built. And shortly after that, there are eggs. I used to work with a guy who said he knew it was officially Fall when he'd be out for a run and would happen to catch a leaf as it fell from a tree. And so I've deemed it officially Spring when these two birds show up and build a home on my home's Spring wreath. Now, the oddest thing happ...

You know, stationary biking for more than 15 minutes is rough. Even with a crowd of others. Even with loud good music. Nothing makes up for the fact that you're going nowhere. And my quads burnout. And I'm slow.  Anyway. Today was the last YMCA winter indoor tri of the season. This one was a 450m swim, 6 mile bike, 2 mile run.  My goal for today was to put in an effort but not race it/go nuts. It's fun to be able to walk for the rest of the day (and the next day) after. It's nice to not be out of it for more than a 5 min cool down. I don't need a medal.  Overall I'd call today a success. The swim was fast and easy. The bike hurt and took forever. The run started off rough but I settled into a pace I was pleased with and got it done. Best of all Cam and Adrian were my counters (with Ben handling the actual start to finish stop watch to make sure the time was right :) ). I finished the whole thing in 50 min, 51 sec.  Look at what a tight age group race it was! Of ...

Freezer Chicken Fajitas.  Prep is 10 minutes of Past You's time. Cook is 20 minutes, totally hands off, for Current You. The hardest part is remembering to take the bag from freezer to fridge to thaw the night before. Sure, winter is almost done, but when the next one rolls around and I have my typical seasonal amnesia forgetting any cozy cold-weather meal to make--Future Me will be thrilled Current Me blogged about this one.  Freezer Chicken Fajitas Ingredients 2-3 chicken breasts 2-3 bell peppers in a variety of colors 1 red onion 1 tablespoon vegetable/canola oil 2 tablespoons taco seasoning  Directions 1. Slice chicken into thin, bite-ish size pieces--drop into a gallon zip top bag 2. Slice bell peppers and onions into bite-ish size strips--drop into the zip top bag 3. Combine oil and taco seasonings in a bowl--pour into zip top bag 4. Squeeze the air out and massage around, trying to evenly coat the chicken/veg with taco oil 5. Store bag in the freezer Meal time 1. D...

Yesterday I ran the East Grand Rapids Irish Jig 5K. Can you believe it was cloudy and 55 ° F for this race? In West Michigan! In mid-March! What a treat. I wanted to have a fun race, comfortable with no effort for a personal best, and I did just that. I ran it in 27:09. Of course I immediately wished I had poured in a bit more to get under 27, but that was a fleeting thought. I'm trying hard to race for fun vs pressure of PR, and noticing along the way when I do I'm not that far off where I thought I'd be if I raced anyway.  Better than the run itself was doing it with coworker/friends/my brother. Good chatter before the race, fun to catch up and grab brunch after. That's a PR in 5K fun.

You know, I just don’t enjoy swimming and hardly get in the pool as an adult. Too many years of 5am swim practice, two-a-days, never not smelling like chlorine. I just… prefer not to, now. I’m not sure what got into me but when I saw a YMCA event aiming to get a group of swimmers together to collectively swim the 118 miles it would take to cross Lake Michigan, I thought–alright, let’s do it. And of course I made my brother sign up, too. Welp, I’m sad to report as a group, the FOUR of us who signed up, did not come close to swimming across. BUT, individually I beat my goal of swimming 2 miles by swimming 3 miles (5,400 yards, or 216 lengths of the pool). I haven’t done that kind of distance since college swim practice in 20… well, nevermind the year and how long it’s been. I can’t believe I cranked that out. BIG emphasis on crank. Good lord were my shoulders absolutely fried not even a third of the way through. We ended up in the water for a little shy of 2 hours. It was fun to do...

I’m fresh off my birthday weekend! It was a good one. It all started with Friday night’s soup party. It was my second time hosting this everyone-bring-a-soup to pass bash . This time we had 11 adults, 8 kids, and 6 soups in attendance. Good thing we built that addition! Kids at the seats closest to the photo had already run off to the basement to play. Amazing how a handful of boys under 8 can make that table look like a scene from a college frat house in under 15 minutes! Soups on the menu were matzo ball, pumpkin cherry chili, sausage sweet potato, Mexican chicken chowder, lemon chicken rice soup and (my submission) tomato soup with grilled cheese dunking sticks .  The soup diversity was *chef’s kiss*. I had some details locked in from last time (disposable soup cups are a must) and some new ideas, too (use dinner plates as carrying trays and note cards/Sharpies out for chefs to label soups). We’d been in a thick-of-winter hibernation mode, it felt nice to be around s...

It started with a magic beginning. C JUST recovered from a 3 day fever/flu, and our flight JUST left town as a massive snow storm rolled in. This was the boys (and my!) first Disney trip. We didn’t know what was in store for us, but seeing the Epcot fireworks right outside our resort room door when we got to the room late Wednesday night was a good indication we were in for a special trip. Disney just…doesn’t let ya down, I’ll tell you. I loved the immersive-ness of it all. Our resort in full Caribbean theme with bright colors, thick shutters, tropical plants and a Caribbean ruin pirate ship themed pool. Pockets of parks that felt like the heart of Taiwan, the African jungle, an old school circus, a restaurant that made it seem like we were dining in space, and such a realistic Italy that 5-yr-old A required multiple dances with me saying “mama, let’s marry”. Oy, I cry. Also great pop up street performers for what I called adult Zumba. It was hot and parents were trying hard to ge...