Dana Burland

Am I overcompensating with Mom Holiday Magic™ this year due to… this year ? You bet I am. We spent Thanksgiving this year apart from our extended families . Beyond making a special dinner of all our usual Thanksgiving favorites, here are some kid-things we did to celebrate: Turkey Day We talked about “Turkey Day”, how this is a special day we spend together being thankful and eating a delicious big dinner. Turkey Pendant I strung a homemade turkey across the kitchen as decoration. Our Thankful Turkey We talked about what we were thankful for together, and everyone in the family submitted “thankful feathers”. A couple heart stickers a certain 3-year-old was awarded for above-and-beyond kindness to his certain 11-month-old brother made their way onto the turkey too.  Family At The Table A tad too close to Thanksgiving Day I had the idea to mail family members self addressed/posted envelopes asking them to send back a drawing of themselves. As these trickle in through the m...

You will remember we wore masks for a while, but you won’t know the rest. You’ll remember what we did , but you won’t remember how long the stretches were when we decided it wasn’t safe to see family or friends. You vaguely know a “turkey day” is coming. You talk about it at daycare and have gathered the hint from my not-so-subtle turkey banner hanging in the kitchen. But you don’t know it’s a treasured family holiday we’ve decided to spend solo because we love our family too much to risk seeing them in person. On Thursday we’ll set our table for four like we normally do. I’m making a special dinner of all our favorite sides, but you probably won’t notice that. We’ll ask you to take “one more bite” and to walk your plate to the sink when you’re done eating. We’ll probably Facetime family and you’ll stay put for 0.00284 seconds of it. Nothing will seem out of sort to you. As your parents, we’re your “ambassador” as you navigate everything new. What you don’t know is sometimes y...

Yeah buddy, I did it. I built an indoor kid’s rock climbing wall in our basement. See?     This was absolutely, no doubt about it, a COVID project. A need for more indoor, at-home activities plus a dash of parental sadness for the things I know my boys are missing out on, with a sprinkling of a personal need to proactively create as a way to stay positive equals rock climbing wall. This was by far my biggest project in scale, but right at my ability in skill. My steps for this project were: Build an exterior frame on top of the interior studs Construct the rock climbing wall Fix the climbing wall to the exterior frame I bought these rock wall grips , which came with hardware too. It gave me a good starting point for everything. Our basement allowed for a 4ft x 6ft climbing wall, so I had a sheet of furniture-grade plywood (pre-sanded and smooth) cut for me at Home Depot to size, plus a few 2x4s 6ft tall for the exterior frame. After determining a climbing hold ...

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...