Sweet Elisabeth… You are the picture of the perfect First Grader: excited to learn, confident of what you know, determined to please your teacher, liked by your classmates, and enthusiastic about every single part of your day. Your enthusiasm for the school day is fun to watch, Elisabeth. You’re dressed in your uniform before the...Continue Reading
Dear Nate…. This is your first year to go to school all day and every day. No more pajama days. No more Best Friend Days with just me and you. Ready or not, your days will be filled with school for the next twenty years. Ready or not, your are now a big-boy student. Of...Continue Reading
Every summer, Mike’s parents gather everyone up for family pictures. We all meet at some beautiful backdrop, and the poor photographer tries to get a decent picture of all 12 of us. I always look like the hungover version of Cruella DeVille in these pictures. It’s the curse of all of us who are truly...Continue Reading
1. If your kid wants to join swim team, know your entire family is signing up. Monday through Friday you will be lugging kids, towels, goggles, sunscreen, and vans full of kids to the pool. Your weekends are now about all day swim meets. 2. Wet swimsuits, towels, and empty bottles of sunscreen will be...Continue Reading
Behind every five-year-old in America is a mom struggling with the question of whether or not her kid should repeat Kindergarten. Five minutes into a conversation with another parent of my generation and we will talk about this topic. Chances are this other mom’s child will have repeated Kindergarten and she will claim it as...Continue Reading
Looking back, the 2013-2014 school year was the busiest one ever for our family. And one of the most eventful. Catie moved to Westlake, Nate started Preschool, I started a school Newspaper, we went to Galveston most weekends, the kids did more activities and sports than ever before, and we (pretty much) LOVED it all....Continue Reading
Last year at this time we were buying a house at the beach, and I was scared to death. Even as we were signing the papers, I wasn’t completely sure a vacation home was such a good idea for us. While I was also excited and determined to make this longtime dream a success, the house...Continue Reading
May might be the busiest month of the year. That used to be December, but everyone seems to know December is insane and doesn’t schedule anything superfluous. May has sneaky busy-ness. It’s the end of spring sports, the start of summer sports, end-of-the-year competitions, final recitals, and SO MANY school projects. Jen Hatmaker describes the...Continue Reading
If you need us, we’ll be at the pool. The kids (minus Nate) have decided to do swim team. Actually, decided is probably too strong of a word. Catie loves swim team so she was eager for another year. Since we had already signed up for the insane schedule of everyday practices, I thought, “Why...Continue Reading
**Disclaimer: By this list of what our family considered family helpers, you’ll see that most of our struggles are hair-centric. And we like to eat. We also really love water bottles, but this doesn’t make our family unique. Have you seen the water bottle aisle at Target? Excuse me, water bottle aisles at Target? We...Continue Reading
