Dana Burland

It's as common as a seasonal garden update or anniversary post--it's my annual Halloween costume creation injury.  Last year I walked away from an attempt to make pizza costumes with several minor hot glue gun burns. The two years before that C's costumes were purchased, not made, so there were no accompanying injuries. What's the fun in that?! This year the costume request was a tiger. Which I made. Perhaps I should leave it at that and just let the guesses roll in for what DIY related injury is this year. Submit your guesses in 3... 2... 1... A puncture wound on my thumb. From a tube of tacky glue I tried to open with a metal shish kabob stick. Because I was rushing to get said tiger costume made during nap time. And because I was being stupid.  Sigh. Here's hoping I don't have an update to give next year. 

Hey, it’s our third house-aversary today! Three years ago today we took possession of this lovely little home. My, how far its come in our hands. (Here’s the news of our new home , year 1 and year 2 .) Big house projects this year included: A bathroom nook cut-out (Feb. 2020) Deck refinishing (June 2020) Front exterior projects (September 2020) This year I spent a lot of time thinking about space efficiency. Our house is not big for four people ( one who was added this year !), especially considering the main area we use every day is about 1,280 sq ft. I like that we don’t have more space than we need and geeked out in determining how to use every inch of our home well. I spent a good amount of time reorganizing closets, cabinets and shelves. I also got smarter about home purchases, getting very critical about footprint and usage of everything we brought into our home. This year, especially as we’ve spent so, so so much time inside, I’m thinking about how I can sharpen ...

I’m still working from home . Every morning I wheel a very nice desk chair that’s stored in the corner of the playroom to the dining room table and set up shop for the day. My office is the corner of the kitchen. We do have a designated office space downstairs, but without windows I don’t enjoy sitting down there for hours at a time. At some point in the morning I’ll throw a load of laundry in. I find without rushing I usually make and eat lunch within 15-20 minutes. In the afternoon I’ll flip the laundry. If dinner has a long cook time, I’ll start it at 4:30 so dinner, the laundry and my work day all wrap up at the same time. This is why I’m enjoying working from home. I pick up the boys at 5:05, and we’re home enjoying the rest of our night together. Last night was a start-dinner-at-4:30 kind of day. I made chicken shawarma from a British cooking show on Netflix where the host shoved spiced chicken into a bread loaf and baked it. It came out looking good on TV, and when I mad...

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.