I’ve come to have a real appreciation for pollen since moving to Virginia. Or perhaps more of a grudging respect. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the beautiful trees and flowers and plants we have here. We live in the woods and I couldn’t be happier. But I had no idea that pollen… Read More Pollen
Wow – it’s been awhile since I’ve had the energy or time or creative inclination to sit down and write. This is the first post I’ve put up in months and, truth is, I’m a little worried about it. I lay in bed the other night, trying to get to sleep, but thoughts of this… Read More Giving Yourself Permission to Stop, and to Start Again
It’s been such a great month, this past December. I turned 34 years old. Chris and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We had Christmas in our own home for the first time. Such fun! It’s been a busy month, too. I’ve been back to work now for a little over 5 weeks, and I’m… Read More December 2014
We went out this weekend and bought ourselves a 2nd vehicle. It was pretty clear that, with me starting full-time employment, we needed another car. After doing a lot of research regarding the best small, fuel-efficient vehicles, we went with a 2013 Kia Soul. A few months ago, I never would have considered a Kia… Read More Starting Daycare, New Wheels, and Hearing Truth
A few weeks back, I was contacted by David Hammond from FreshTake Publishers. Turns out, we had a couple of things in common. For one, we both have lived/live in New Zealand. David’s wife is an American (like me), named Jennifer (like me) and has spent time living in Virginia (like me). Easy to see… Read More “A Fresh Take: New Zealand” Calender and 20% Off Discount Code
I see articles like this and I’m reminded once again of one of the reasons why we moved back to the USA. We definitely got a little flak from people, both in-person and online, for choosing to move out of New Zealand, in part, because of the high cost of living. Phrases such as, “You… Read More Monday Post
I’m so thankful – I was offered (and I accepted) a new job last Thursday evening. I’m excited about this job for so many reasons – the opportunity to focus on prevention and primary medicine, being able to help and serve my patients, and working for a good company – but mostly, I’m in awe… Read More Thankful
Thankful for a visit from my mother-in-law this week. She brought their dogs as well and I’m happy to say that all went smoothly in that regard 🙂 Family is so precious – I’m thankful that we’re back in the States, where we can easily see them and share our lives with them.
It’s a cool-ish morning here in Williamsburg. The sky is overcast and they’re predicting rain later this afternoon. I’m home with Joe and Jack and all 3 of us have some variation of a cold. Jack is – amazingly – taking a morning nap, a surefire sign that he’s not feeling 100% normal. Joe is… Read More Giving Your Children 5 Minutes
I’ve written before about how much I enjoy baking with my kids. It’s such a great activity for us to do together – perfect for days when we can’t get outdoors for one reason or another. Yesterday was one of those days. I’ve had a nasty cold since Saturday and it seems quite content to… Read More Baking with Kiddos
It’s 5:15am and I’m up at the computer on a Tuesday. I’ve been awake since just after 4am and, rather than fight it, decided to get out of bed and make a cup of tea. I’ve been waking up just after 4 o’clock for the last 2 – 3 weeks off and on and my… Read More Giving In to Internal Alarm Clocks and a Job Search Update
The official start to Autum was several days ago. It was cold, even here in Williamsburg, and I had to dig out some long pants for the boys and a sweatshirt for myself. But it didn’t feel like the true start to Fall. No, that day came a little bit later with the arrival of… Read More You know it’s Fall…
It’s been tricky to make the transition from a “New Zealand” blog to being a US-based blog once again. For starters, I still get Twitter mentions and am nominated for being a “top international blog”. I have to gently remind people that, alas, I am no longer in NZ and haven’t been for over a… Read More Making the transition… in more ways than one
Today was Joe’s second day of preschool and, since I was feeling pretty sick on his first day, it was almost like my “first day” of having a child in preschool. And you know something? It’s nice. Not gonna lie! Joe is full of energy. He is busy, inquisitive, a talker, a question-asker, and non-stop. … Read More An Overabundance of Energy!
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated the old blog. Those weeks have been full of activity – trips to Philadelphia, Joe starting school, William & Mary starting back up again – and illness, too, unfortunately. All 4 of us have been hit by a GI bug, one by one. First Chris, then Joe,… Read More First Days
One of our favorite Williamsburg grocery stores is Farm Fresh. Farm Fresh consistently offers quality products at prices within our family’s budget, and we shop there nearly every week. As a result, I was so excited to hear about their food drive in support of local food banks and thrilled that they ask me to… Read More Farm Fresh “Back-to-School Challenge” Food Drive + Gift Card Giveaway
I’ve been hearing this song several times a week for the last 6 weeks. It’s part of the cool-down routine at my Body + Soul workout classes (love these – click the link to find out if there’s one near you!), and I wanted to share it with you. I love the lyrics and love… Read More After all.
I finished a few little projects this weekend and wanted to share them with you, my lovely readers. Weekend Project #1: Painting and installing an above-the-commode cabinet in hallway bath I found the cabinet at World Market the weekend before. It was originally a dark brown with “whitewash” splotches. In other words, it was a… Read More Little Projects
I think my clothesline is amazing. Yes, that probably sounds silly, but I do. In the photo below, it’s holding 2 “super plus” sizes of laundry (per my washing machine’s measurements) as well as a day’s worth of Jack’s cloth diapers. Another way of looking at it: I hadn’t washed any clothing since Friday, and… Read More Clotheslined, but in a good way
Now that the toy room/den is mostly complete, I’m moving onto the dining room. I primed the walls and trim yesterday and have my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to apply the first coats of paint tomorrow. But before doing anything, there was first the issue of the old curtains hanging in there. Now,… Read More Phase Two Window Treatments
