tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105820192025-01-20T21:41:40.210-05:00Emerging from the laundry swamps and Lego wastelands to keep track of our own adventures. Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.comBlogger1970125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-42007500748387973862025-01-14T13:14:00.003-05:002025-01-14T13:14:28.618-05:00

 Nov 26 - Jan 15 are the 50 darkest days of the year. (centered on 12/21 as the solstice). They are a slog for so many reasons: As a professor, they are the end of the semester which is stressful and exhausting in my actual work load and also in the emotional work of carrying dozens of panicking students across their finish lines. As a parent, it's being there for a college kid that is

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-18287357707303067382025-01-01T22:07:00.002-05:002025-01-02T11:47:40.591-05:00

Last weekend was tough in my little world -- a friend lost her husband which came a few days after a work colleague passed, and so on Sunday we found ourselves double booked for funerals.  We suited up and attended both -- sharing our condolences with the widows -- and then found ourselves on the far side of town fully dressed up at 4:30 pm and surprisingly hungry. We popped into a

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-46016336019588329502024-12-19T10:53:00.003-05:002024-12-19T10:53:19.108-05:00

 As always, the semester got away from me and in the life-or-death battle to regain some control over it through late November and early December, we now find ourselves at December 19 with a pile of grading, a list of students requesting extensions and accommodations and curves, a bunch of untouched projects, and also a mostly "concepts of a plan" situation when it comes to shopping,

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-75793284453957675292024-12-12T23:13:00.002-05:002024-12-12T23:15:11.404-05:00

Let it be known that I sleep under 7 layers of blankets (9 of you count the duvet as a lower-duvet-upper sandwich).  One is heated. 1 is extra weighted. All are cushy warm, and I'm still achingly cold the first hour of the night. White sheet, heated blue fleece, thick gray duvet, white fleece, heavy crochet, handmade quilt, gray fleece.  

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-10694943231370439612024-12-11T16:23:00.003-05:002024-12-11T16:23:30.417-05:00

 It's that time of the year where I regret every project I've assigned and question the value of every part of teaching.In other words, I'm dragging myself through grading and arguing with myself if I deserve a slice of pie after each project or after every 5 projects...  I am counting what's left more often than I'm grading.  I'm staring deep into outer space hoping they'll just

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-75867452524995941152024-12-06T12:38:00.001-05:002024-12-06T12:38:35.346-05:00

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-70253436759816758272024-12-04T12:53:00.001-05:002024-12-04T12:53:10.354-05:00

 We're still eating pie for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and dessert and snacks.  I threw away a few yesterday that were starting to go bad and finished off two today from the fridge. Pie pie pie....

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-36695994585430711072024-12-02T13:42:00.004-05:002024-12-02T13:42:26.155-05:00

So the good news is the new washing machine was purchased on a decent Black Friday sale and ended up basically the same price as we were estimated for repairing the old one which was parts + labor + the direct costs of using a laundry mat for a few weeks (not including the sanity savings).  It got delivered this morning and is already hard at work catching up with 2.5 days of backlog from

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-87926444359104337392024-11-30T15:06:00.003-05:002024-12-02T12:25:13.013-05:00

A little housewarming for their first Christmas in their new home. 

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-92029047908426356062024-11-29T14:49:00.002-05:002024-12-04T12:53:49.284-05:00

Living that "washing machine is broken and the kid puked in his bed" dream.  Our black friday plans are very uncool. 

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-87732699530009071932024-11-29T06:42:00.005-05:002024-11-29T13:14:45.185-05:00

Content warning: lots of talk of vomit.  One for the books.  One for the ages.  A true epic. Highlights: 10 Ukrainians playing card games, people from four different countries, more than 20 total desserts, and 2 cases of food poisoning.We started out with our usual Thanksgiving plans: just the crew and more food than any of us need.  Rob loves Thanksgiving -- especially

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-619930062507976112024-11-25T12:41:00.003-05:002024-11-25T12:41:47.716-05:00

 I've found my life is far better without Facebook.  I check it about once per day but I read only my notifications and then the first few  posts until I hit something that is not actually from a friend.  As soon as it's an ad, a "we thought you might like this group" post, or some other nonsense, I exit out.   I rarely get more than 2 posts deep.  Out.However,

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-10632960597706894592023-03-28T11:53:00.002-04:002023-03-28T11:53:16.853-04:00

 Honestly things here are pretty good.  We took a beautiful family trip to our favorite little beach town in Puerto Rico (our first visit since 2019).  Katie's college search process is going really well except for the whole "make a decision" thing. The kids are generally ok. But...Some weeks it just all piles up. We are STILL not able to use the "new" car that got

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-37731141010722452392023-02-16T11:05:00.003-05:002023-02-16T11:05:40.582-05:00

 3.5 weeks ago we bought Maryna's car off of her to have another car here since we have FOUR young people with driver's permits and eventually some of them will get real licenses. I spent the past 3.5 weeks dealing with plates and ez pass and insurance and registration and titles and literally yesterday at 2pm finally got it all done and put the "car related stuff" folder AWAY. And then at

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-35982570197116693052023-02-07T09:06:00.004-05:002023-02-07T09:07:03.497-05:00

 I'm burnt out.I was out of town for 3.5 days for a family emergency and came home to find the house in barely-contained chaos.  The waffle iron was still sitting dirty from 4 days ago. No laundry had been done and we were down to one bath towel (we have about 20 shared among the 6 of us and a few of the kids seem to use 3 per day).  Rob was doing his share and then some, but

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-37948137802298698422023-01-02T10:43:00.004-05:002023-01-02T11:51:01.390-05:00

Here we are.  Back when I started writing here in early 2005 I was anxiously imagining how much our world would change when the baby-to-be would emerge into this world mid-June. And here we are again, 18 years later, as I imagine that same baby about to emerge -- again, mid-June -- but this time out of high school.  Not out of my body and into our home, but out of our home and into

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-6430277379931158102021-02-24T22:39:00.003-05:002021-02-24T22:39:25.241-05:00

When the school pictures arrive of my kid in epic bed-head, his most worn out hoodie, and a giant 4-H award ribbon pinned to his chest because he wanted to show his friends today and apparently left it on... well, just know that YES we did know it was school picture day and YES we all had such good intentions when we talked about it yesterday afternoon. 7:30 AM is not a functional time for

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-85372793394896946712020-12-04T01:11:00.002-05:002020-12-04T01:12:25.191-05:00

 There is some sort of mouse/rat/squirrel/raccoon/small bear that lives in the ceiling above my home-office set up. Every day I hear it scratching and scurrying and I bang on the ceiling and curse at the walls.There is a dog across the street that barks for at least 30 minutes at some point every single day (most days it seems like hours). I also curse at the windows.Today, Rob set poison

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-34906708192830828932020-10-29T23:07:00.002-04:002020-10-29T23:07:23.679-04:00

Another snapshot of this time, just to remember it:  There's so much going on, and yet nothing at all.  We're constantly just barely keeping up, but what we're desperately keeping up with is almost nothing.Three kids on three academic campuses with three different schedules. Plus Mom and Dad's routines. This week, the fourth (oldest) started a new job, so the 5th (granddaughter) is

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-50657538559888449032020-09-20T23:04:00.004-04:002020-09-20T23:04:52.220-04:00

Covid-19 back-to-school reality: exhaustion.Thank God so far we're all healthy. At this point I have almost two dozen dear friends who have had it -- people I message regularly, visit whenever we're near them, exchange holiday cards, have had in our home for meals, and know all their kids by name. But only a few have had complicated recovery times (two very complicated) and none have died.&

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-2214399852197627622020-08-21T22:48:00.002-04:002020-08-21T22:48:19.507-04:00

 (Yes I missed a bunch of other birthdays. I can't undo time).Dear Augs,Ten years have passed. You were born on a chaotic Friday when we had 2 little kids in the house, a dear friend living with us temporarily, jobs were in flux -- your dad literally started his next career move from a phone call that happened in the delivery room -- everything was in flux. You entered this world and made it

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-69404945263861675742020-08-10T19:22:00.007-04:002020-08-10T19:22:56.328-04:00

Two weeks ago, publisher email "Can you read and review this entire textbook by 8/7?"Um, sure. Yea, ok. sure. Send it to me. Sure.Me on 8/7 in exhaustion: Hey....so... can I do it by Monday 8/10Me on 8/10 at 7pm: downloading textbook.... 🤦‍♀️The past few weeks have been exhausting with probably 60+ hours of work each week just to get ready for my actual work that "starts" in 2 weeks. I've

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-82818144630345131932020-08-07T22:28:00.003-04:002020-08-07T22:30:31.461-04:00

 We're navigating back to school on four different campuses for our household -- all private so 4 different boards deciding things. None of the schools are quite sure when or if they'll switch to remote-only or partial remote or what.August is in his middle-year at the upper classroom of our beloved Montessori school. The classroom is huge with lots of space and fairly few kids in his "pod";

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-81195609733383497292020-08-05T22:57:00.007-04:002020-08-05T22:57:56.021-04:00

I'd imagined our 20th anniversary would include some kind of vow renewal/blessing and a celebration with friends and family. Instead, we didn't leave the property, much like nearly every day of the past 4 straight months.So, bear with me, as I give a toast to our marriage.Twenty years ago today, two kids made a promise based on faith, hope, and love. I remember the night before the wedding, my

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10582019.post-81639420262541300432020-08-03T18:03:00.003-04:002020-08-03T18:03:53.212-04:00

The first week of August is such a strong week of "family" here. It's sort of our whole family anniversary all week long. Rob and I moved into our first home together the first week of August 1999. We got married the first week of August 2000 (yes, a year later in the wrong order, my parents may never forgive us). We decided we were serious about starting to have kids in that first week

Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15864229531085152218noreply@blogger.com0