Category: Updates

I grew up skiing. I don’t remember how old I was the first time I put skis on, I’m guessing I had x-country skis on my feet as soon as I could walk. When I was teenager I swapped my downhill skis, for a snowboard (it was limitedly successful with a broken arm on my […]

If you read our holiday letter you know that there was a line about baking and eating starch and butter. This time a year ago I had great ambitions of tracking some of our more ‘fun’ food consumptions and while I didn’t do great on most of them I do have some approximate data for […]

‘Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the house, All the creatures were stirring, and there were lots of shouts. The stockings were hung on the mantel with care,  By a tween girl whose life she claims is unfair. The children protested getting snug in their beds,  Always wanting one more snack or ride […]

About a year ago a friend and I were causally talking and she mentioned her bucket list included an Ironman Race. Now, I’ve never been a competitive athlete – I like adventure and fun but I am missing the drive/dedication to be a really strong competitor – but I DO like a challenge and will […]

As I stated in What’s Cookin? we grocery shop once a month. It is probably worth nothing that this is not a pandemic specific lifestyle. Way back in July of 2018, I wrote a blog post about our family’s monthly shopping trips. These days I shop alone, and there are even more masks in the […]

I wanted to take a minute to share with you a quick story from “behind the scenes” on the antics that show up in the blog. I recently showed you all how we go about planning our menu and meals. Usually, 90% or so of the meals are tried and true staples. Much of our […]

We meal plan. We plan breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and usually desserts and snacks too). With a few exceptions we six eat all our meals together at the table, and have for nearly 5 years- when Kevin transitioned to working from home full time. Pre-pandemic – I would sit down with our calendar and plan […]

We like to play. We love to explore and adventure. We don’t like to mop floors or scrub showers. To be able to do all the fun things we first have to get through the list of ‘must do’ things. Our kids don’t have a daily/weekly chore list, and they don’t get an allowance. The […]

**Here is a copy of our semi-annual family update letter. ** Dear Friends and Family— Last year was full of travel and adventure—we all traveled to Europe in the fall, and bought a house in December, leaving little time for a holiday letter. This year was less traditionally hectic, although a house of six is […]

January 1, 2021- The first day of the new year. Usually a time for reflecting on what we have accomplished in the previous year and what we are looking forward to in the coming months. And while we certainly tried to incorporate those highlights into our day, it also felt like 2021 was deserving of […]

Given the rising COVID-19 case numbers, we opted not to do a lot of the normal winter activities that fill our days—skiing (downhill and cross-country), snowshoeing, and ice skating. However, we still wanted to be able to take advantage of outside time as much as possible this winter. We have some hills on our property […]

A year ago today we were homeless for a few hours. That morning we sold our house on North Oak and we didn’t close on our current home until later in the day. That meant that for a few hours in the middle of the day we didn’t have an address of our own. The […]