Dana Burland

As 3-year-olds are inclined to do, your older brother lovingly corrects you often. No, Adrian. You can’t have that, you will choke. You should be sleeping right now. If you want to play with that, you need to ask first. I love said 3-year-old for all he’s learned and for all he feverishly stands by. I love you for beaming through it. It seems like no matter what, you’re smiling. Not just smiling, but a grin so big your cheeks pop up over your eyes and I wonder if you can still see over the joy. You’re like me. I was an ever-smiling, go-with-the-flow baby. My eyes still go small when I grin with cheeks that take over my face. It’s earned you the name “mini mama”, around here. The name really does fit. Not only do I see me on you, I see me in you too. You’re curious, in a hands-on way. I watch you “fight above your weight class”, with a disinterest in being too small to do something. You could say that’s common of all babies, but you and I, we’re not reckless or attempt...

It’s September, and we’re still being extra cautious of where we go to avoid COVID exposure. Lots of places around us are still closed, or starting a very slow roll to re-open. I’ve mentioned it before, but a nice silver lining to this mess is that we’ve been outside as a family more, and have found several new gems in our area. Here are a few places we’ve been spending time at: GR Bike Park A new-to-us find with four courses of varying degrees of difficulty. Our 3-year-old who rides a balance bike confidently was able to ride 1.5 of the loops (I say half because he ditched his bike to run/climb up the ramps vs ride one of them). Krupp Farms / Trapp’s Berry Farm / Schwailler’s Country Market Krupp for strawberries in mid June, Trapp’s for raspberries in early September, Schwailler's in the fall for apples and pumpkins. U-Pick places mean groceries and an activity in one. Count me in. Heidi’s Fruit Stand The more urban markets we’ve been to in the past just don’t feel like a...

Hey! I have some house updates to share! Remember our Summer 2020 projects I mentioned in May? The Big Story was the deck, which we finished in late June . In progress was my side project of removing the paint from our front porch; which, hasn't gone great to be honest. I've spent hours power washing, hand scraping, chemically pealing and casting angry spells on this porch. I've made some really great progress removing almost all the paint from the horizontal planes, but I'm at stand still where absolutely no more paint will budge.  Here's where I started in May and where I'm at now: Shout out to my pink flowers, y'all are doing great this year. My porch plan is to let this sit in its in progress state over this up coming winter, and revisit it in the Spring. I think our harsh weather might loosen up some stuck on spots. Ideally I can strip all the paint off in the Spring, but if not I'll work my tail to get the horizontal surfaces stripped and will inv...

We’re back home from a 4-day trip to one of the best spots in the state. Certainly the best spot “Up North”, in my opinion. This was Adrian’s first trip up north! None of us had been up since last fall , actually. It was the first time wrangling two boys in the car for a long drive. The first time Cam slept in a big bed solo. The first time for sparklers and s’mores and walking barefoot in the waterfall where I played for endless hours as a kid. The first walk down the pier where we had to take The Picture with Cam in front of the lighthouse that I so hope we’ll recreate year after year as he gets older. Our weather was not amazing, it was chilly and rained almost every day. We also didn’t let that stop us. The best evidence was the drive home where both our boys uncharacteristically slept for the entire three hour ride--we really had the most fun.

This year did not go as planned . Things I assumed from years past didn’t shake out the same way, like my rosemary which failed to take off because it was in a new spot shadowed by towering basil. I adjusted and tried new things, but didn’t think I’d feel so gut punched by failed dahlias, nothing strawberries and mowed-down-by-bunnies green beans. And then there were the bees. A surprise hive formed underground and spread like a rampant, resistant and immune to all my combative attempts. It grew rapidly to the point where it wasn’t safe to access my parsley or snap peas at all. It took a community effort and time to calm it--our kind neighbor covering the hive in the dark of the night with orders to let it sit for the weekend. Still, I saw small pockets of swarming, but not like the initial big wave, and now it’s quiet but lurking again. But sometimes, in spite of it all, I saw resilient growth. My basil was steady and strong again this year, and my parsley was unassumingly t...

Wanna come along with me on my next project? I’m tackling our basement bathroom; a room that’s in great shape and rarely used, and a spot I’m looking to interject a whole lot of fun. Here are some current (and soon to be before) pictures. I’m doing a lipstick fix which means I need to work with the beige tile floor, gold trim on the shower doors, stripe of maroon tile in the shower and existing vanity/wall cabinet. I thought the fastest way to interject fun is with a small wall of wallpaper. Here’s what I’m putting on the wall where the towel bar is near the shower and the toilet. Is the swimmer theme a big surprise? :) I’m wondering if I should leave the rest of the walls the gray/beige color, or if I should paint them white? I also had a wild idea I could paint the ceiling a soft pink to match the wallpaper, but I’m not sure about that just yet. The vanity is for sure going to get painted. I’m considering two different oranges (yes, ORANGE!) pulled out from the wallpaper...

We have a new book from the library which mentions a new-to-us word: pedestrian. Can you say that? I asked. Pedestrian, you said, without flubbing a syllable, without needing it repeated, without a second thought some adults don’t regularly use that word. On a walk which required safely crossing a busier street you recalled it perfectly: we’re crossing the street safely, we’re pedestrians! Then you yelled “THANK YOU, CARS!! loudly. Oh man, there’s just nothing sweeter than your little kid-isms. At 3-years-old you’re smart and silly but most notably trustworthy. We can go on bike rides together--you on your balance bike and us on our old mountain bikes. You stop at the end of each street, you rarely ride wildly, and you can endure about a mile without our hands on assistance. You can appropriately use the salt shaker at dinner by yourself. You’ll announce needing to run out of sight and why, bopping to your room or the basement, returning quickly and safely. You retrieve...