The other day, Mr. Handsome decided to return to a hobby that he picked up a couple years ago, and I realized that I never shared the original masterpiece that he created. When we had a few trees cut down a while back, we of course ended up with a lot of wood. While Mr. Handsome was outside chopping one day, I looked out the window and discovered that he had moved onto a new task. He had a big tree stump in front of him and was using his chainsaw to carve it. Within just a few hours, it had turned into a bear! I was amazed by his skill, especially when he had never done anything like that. Th ..read more

This is our second year of serious gardening. I have always had tomato plants (even back when we lived in an apartment, on our balcony), but last year, Mr. Handsome stepped up our game by building two large raised beds. In our big beds, we planted lettuce, sugar snap peas, spinach, and kale from seed at the very end of March. We also put broccoli seeds in a pot. At the end of April, we bought small tomato plants from Home Depot and planted those in our smaller raised beds. So far, everything is doing great. Our lettuce is going wild, so we have been eating salads twice a day. We are consideri ..read more

When we were in Chattanooga, we passed by a dog-friendly pub. On a Sunday evening, it was a popular place, with dozens of dogs roaming about while their owners socialized and ate. As we walked by, Littlest Buddy made his dog sound. His “woof woof” sounds incredibly authentic. While I won’t pretend to be an expert in the inner workings of the canine brain, this did look like a fun place for a dog to play. It was a warm day, and there were plenty of tunnels and other toys scattered around, as well as some water play stations. Have you ever seen a dog-friendly restaurant? Have you been to one? T ..read more

Littlest Buddy is 16 months old and in a very busy stage. If you put him down in public, you’d better be ready to go after him, because he wants to go everywhere and do everything. He didn’t start walking until a couple months ago, but now that he has perfected that skill, he wants to utilize it. In mid-March, he started taking off in his talking, as well. At the beginning of March, he barely said anything, except for a specific babble word he had chosen for milk or water, as well as the occasional “da” for yes. At four years old, Little Buddy is a great talker, so I started praying that the ..read more

Many of you know that we plan to homeschool. This has been a joint goal of ours since we were married, as well as something that we both individually planned to do with our future children before we met. We both come from families where academics were considered very important, and we look forward to imparting that value to our children. Little Buddy only recently turned four years old, which means he won’t start Kindergarten until August 2024. Last fall, we began doing a structured, daily school time each morning, and I am really proud of him for the progress he has made. We started with a p ..read more

Since moving to Nashville eight years ago, we have done three overnights in Chattanooga. It’s only a two-hour drive, and it’s a fun city to explore. Our first trek was a surprise trip that Mr. Handsome planned for our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple. We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel, and although the converted Pullman railroad car was a bit drafty, we had a wonderful time. Our second time in Chattanooga was in fall 2021 with almost-two-year-old Little Buddy. We listened to the suggestions of the many “See Rock City” advertisements along I-24 and were in awe of the natura ..read more

Littlest Buddy is 16 months old and in a very busy stage. If you put him down in public, you’d better be ready to go after him, because he wants to go everywhere and do everything. He didn’t start walking until a couple months ago, but now that he has perfected that skill, he wants to utilize it.  In mid-March, he started taking off in his talking, as well. At the beginning of March, he barely said anything, except for a specific babble word he had chosen for milk or water, as well as the occasional “da” for yes. At four years old, Little Buddy is a great talker, so I started praying tha ..read more

As a mom of two boys, I am often asked if we are going to try for a girl. We do want more kids, but I can honestly say that I don’t have an opinion on whether or future child or children are boys or girls. I am so grateful to have had two boys in a row, especially since there is a three-year age gap (many of you know that I suffered two miscarriages in 2020). I think a three-year gap would have been hard if we had had a boy and then a girl, but I am hopeful that my boys will be best buds. My husband has a brother who is five years younger, and they did a lot together growing up and are now ev ..read more

For the past couple days, I have been trying to come up with an engaging discussion question to pose to all of you, and I think I have found one. Before I delve in, I’ll add that if you have any suggestions for discussion questions, feel free to send them my way. I really enjoy interacting and conversing with my readers. So here goes: What is a goal you have or something you are currently working towards? It can be something you hope to happen or accomplish in the next few days or something that will take years, or anything in between. A goal we have for this year is to move our boys into the ..read more

How was your Easter holiday? I decided to try a new tradition this year. I’ll start by saying that I’m not typically much of a baker. We have a few favorites that I’ll make from time to time, like muffins, carrot cake, strudel, or my husband’s favorite chocolate chip cookies. But it’s not something I enjoy doing on a regular basis, and neither of us want a constant supply of sweets on the counter tempting us. Every once in a while is sufficient. That being said, I want to create happy memories for my kids, so I decided to make homemade empty tomb rolls this Easter. I wanted them to be gluten ..read more