On Five

I’ve taken to just calling her “Five” because it makes her grin ear to ear.

Because I’m the boss…

On my drive home yesterday, I came up with an awesome way to explain Unconditional Parenting to y’all. Unconditional Parenting is almost exactly like being a good manager. • You talk to your children like they are adults that can make their own choices, while giving clear guidelines for behavior and setting reasonable expectations. •

I’m just not very good at anything today.

I’m cuddling with two kids and a cup of coffee. My house is a disaster, there is a long work day ahead, and I have done zero Christmas shopping. I have a 22 lb turkey AND a ham defrosting in my refrigerator for the 120 person family party on Saturday. Darian’s first dance performance is

grabby and crabby

I am insanely jealous of single people that live alone. I love my children. I love my husband. I like my cats a whole lot. I also would like to be by my fucking self occasionally. From the moment I arrive home, Rhys begins his whine. This isn’t just any whine, of course. The pitch

Unconditional Parenting

I’ve been cheating on my neglected blog with my sister’s well updated one. We both practice versions of Unconditional Parenting, and I’ve written a bit about my experiences with it there. Parenting is a wild ride, and when I was looking for tools to help me develop strong ties with my children, even through adversity,

Bad Mommy

I took my kids for a happy meal. We had a long weekend in San Francisco, and Sunday included a park at 7 am, photos in a firetruck on our way to the streetcar, followed by a streetcar ride to the Academy of Sciences for the Snakes exibit, another streetcar ride, burritos from Gordos (best

Farmer’s Market

I was thrilled that Darian took a nap today. She woke up shortly before I arrived home, and we all got to walk down to the farmer’s market together. I’m guessing her body needed some rest to heal the enormous gash in her forehead from this morning. It was a little late for us to

My most favorite…

Simple. My favorite way to spend this day. As simply as possible. What I LOVE about today is that my husband and I don’t do anything differently. I like to think that we show our love for one another every day, so there is no need for flowers or balloons or sappy store bought cards

Not a Bitch

You have uninvited me to your birthday party ( that isn’t happening until February) twice a day for the last 3 weeks. You’ll be lucky to HAVE a birthday party if you keep it up.

Clean Being

I’m just not built to clean. I’m built to soothe, joke, cook, laugh, drink, read, garden, kiss, love, work and write. Not so much built for washing, folding, bed making, sweeping, wiping, mopping and my arch nemesis…putting laundry away. I DO clean, but I’m not good at maintaining cleanliness. I LOVE a clean house. I