For the first time, we did a family costume! It was so incredibly fun to have a family project. The boys and I had read The Wizard of Oz as a part of our morning chapter book couch time (it was…unexpectedly dark and scary. And so different from the movie!) Then we watched the movie. They became obsessed with all the songs and wanted to rewatch the song and dance numbers over and over. We had discussed doing a family costume and they were firm: we would be the Wizard of Oz! Mike would be the Scarecrow, despite his PhD-quality brains. Gabe the Tinman, despite his huge heart. Theo the ..read more

Or, phone rules for fellow people who lack self-control and balance. My post-it note via How to Break Up with Your PhoneI have struggled with a love-hate relationship with my phone for soooo long. I love that I can text my friends and family and keep in touch! I hate how I can lose hours of time staring at a little screen and come away feeling icky and annoyed with myself.  The only reason i stay glued to my phone is because of work, but now that I’ve got these sms services for small business, they have really helped me out to stay off of my phone. I love how I can listen to podcasts a ..read more

We’ve lived in this condo for almost two full years and this summer, we’ve had some bugs. It started with ants in the kitchen. Then we started having more flying pests when the kids left the outside door open. I like doing things myself but I think it would have been much easier to hire a pest control service to get rid of the pest with professional help. Bed Bug Exterminator Petersburg is the best and hygienic pest control service. There are several issues with trying to remove bats from an attic. From rabies to histoplasmosis from the bat guano, a local Houston bat removal company-owner Ja ..read more

(Warning, this post will contain mentions of bodily fluid) How Eleanor Came to Be. I want to write this all down while I still have child care (grandparents FTW) and it’s still fresh in my mind! After experiencing a second stillbirth in November 2016, we were done. We couldn’t imagine trying again and ending with such a devastating, traumatic loss. I started going to my support group again and found an incredible trauma therapist I went to weekly for 6 months. We spent the summer traveling. I wanted to know I could be happy again, have a good life without another baby. It’s not so much I w ..read more

[November Update] HEALTH: Walk 6,000 steps a day. // Most days. I missed once a week, so I achieved my somewhat-pathetic-don’t-judge-me goal 80% of the month to be exact. (I use an app to keep track of habits some months. Other months I use a habit tracker in my bullet journal thing). My fitness tracker stopped working this month, which put a huge dent in my progress. Stealth Belt or Stoma belts? I get asked which belt is better about 22346145 times a day (more or less), so it’s time to finally put these heavyweights in the ring and see who comes out on top! FAMILY: Journal kids stuff. // Yes ..read more

Hello and welcome to my debbie downer corner of the internet. Want to know why I hate this time of year? Pull up a chair. Let me share. (Or click x and escape the sadness.) November 15: The due date for my first miscarriage. A tiny, small part of me still thinks “I’d have a four year old.” Even though I have a three year old I am smitten with and who would not exist if had had this first baby. It was a bump on the road to getting Theo. November 16: The day I couldn’t find a heartbeat on my doppler at 20 weeks 3 days pregnant. The day my anxiety kept me from sleeping. I went in to the midwife ..read more

(Yes, I am a dork.) Your website should be like an extra employee. Who works non stop 24/7. An example of this would be Pay monthly websites through which you can run your business website smoothly without being exorbitant about them. I recently overhauled my site after I realized it wasn’t totally representing what I do well. And that there was the potential to add more helpful information to potential clients. Since I am a referral-based business, not a Google-based business, most people are interested in working with me when they land on my site. The role of my site is to take someone from ..read more

Yesterday I talked about the BIG where to live. We are here in Massachusetts, but deciding where to live once we landed here was difficult. We spent a year living on the edge of a rich suburb a few miles from Mike’s school. We had nothing to walk to and it was fairly dull. We found that the city everyone said we would love? We did. So we moved here after the first year. We love, love, love our little city. It’s perfect for us in almost every way. We love our little townhouse. We love being able to walk to restaurants, a library, a discount natural foods store, a small indoor mall, a park, and ..read more

It’s been two years since we moved from Ohio to Massachusetts with a help of a nice removal company,  have a wealth of knowledge and dedication to exceptional customer service I’m talking about Fox Removals. I have found a few incredible friends – supportive and kind and funny. But they all are from here and have deep roots and extensive support systems. Meanwhile, I️ feel like I’m cobbling together a tiny handful of people to be a support system. One of my biggest dilemmas lately is how to share the reality of my history with new people in my life. If I don’t know how to tell a new friend abo ..read more

We are homeschooling Gabe again this year for first grade. (Though most homeschoolers seem big into not labeling grade levels and just learning whatever is appropriate, I try to keep an eye on first grade standards and use mostly first grade books because I want to be sure he doesn’t fall behind.) He started a two-day-a-week intentional learning program for homeschoolers. It’s sort of waldorf-y, sort of montessori, and only a two minute walk away. So: PERFECT. We continue to be a one car family and Mike commutes 40 miles each way to work, so having an educational enrichment opportunity so clos ..read more