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The new year is nearly upon us! It feels like a good time to share my New Year’s reflection process for this year.

First of all, I like to start this process in November. I truly like to take my time. I do not want to feel rushed or pressured into a set of intentions that don’t resonate deeply with me.

Additionally, I like a longer runway because I find the process to be iterative. I start by thinking about the kind of year I had and then move into what kind of year I want to have. But by thinking into the future, it reminds me of things I … Read More

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Here’s a play-by-play journal of my experience with using a dating app to make friends:

Day 1 of Using a Dating App to Make Friends

My husband got sick of hearing me complain about not having enough friends. He told me to download the Bumble BFF app.

I start building my profile. It’s surprisingly difficult! (I used to do online dating back in the day.)

I can easily identify five or so photos to upload (that part feels like less pressure than the dating apps used to feel). But I am out of practice when it comes to encapsulating my identity in a sentence or two. And the app … Read More

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One of my favorite holiday rituals is our Christmas Countdown.

In the days leading up to Christmas, the boys select a holiday-themed activity (from a stack of pre-written cards) for us to do after school.

As the boys grow and evolve over the years, the list of activities changes slightly.

Here’s what I’m thinking for this year:

1. Visit a small-town Christmas parade
2. Drink eggnog
3. Drink hot chocolate (with homemade whipped cream in a can?)
4. Make marshmallows
5. Visit the 37th Street Lights  
6. Go ice-skating 
7. Attend an arts and crafts festival
8. Make chocolate chip cookies and deliver them to people experiencing homelessness
9. Make gingerbread houses
10. Make baked goods for colleagues and

… Read More

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Who needs a DIY Turkey Trot hat? Apparently I do!

I didn’t know I needed a turkey trot hat until last week when my cousin announced via text message that we would be doing a turkey trot over Thanksgiving Break.

Our entire family is coming together for Thanksgiving at the beach in Florida. It will be my parents, my brother/his wife/my niece and nephew, my cousin and her husband and three children, my other cousin and her boyfriend, my aunt, and my grandpa. In other words, the whole gang!

I asked my cousin how to sign up for the turkey trot, and it was explained to me that it wasn’t … Read More

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I want to immerse myself in joy during the holiday season—not stress! And yet “joy” for me means hosting a lot of events and shepherding our family through lots of rituals. In order to make both things true, I’ve had to get into the habit of using systems to reduce holiday stress!

Here’s a partial list of the kinds of things we have going on during the holidays:

• We host a Halloween party.
• We host an October Saturday Supper.
• We host a Friendsgiving celebration.
• We celebrate Matt’s birthday right around Thanksgiving.
• We host a Fondue Fun party around Christmas.
• We travel to see my family at Thanksgiving.
• We travel to

… Read More

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We’ve been trying out a new way to do school lunches. For years, Matt or I would decide what to pack for the boys. The boys would get the same lunches as each other. When I was in the thick haze of launching an organization, the boys and I used to make all of their meals on Sunday.

But our old system was making everyone feel pretty blah—myself included!

So we decided to test out a new way to do school lunches.

We started by making a list of several different options in several different categories:

• Protein
• Vegetable
• Fruit
• Carbohydrate
• Dairy
• Extra Snacks

Every Friday morning, I ask the … Read More

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The other day Henry brought home three friends and I didn’t have much time to pull together some quick snack ideas for hungry kids.

First, I chopped up some vegetables and put them around a small bowl of ranch dressing.

I also had some fruit. I was going to make a dip out of plain Greek yogurt, honey, and cinnamon. But this time I opted for Nutella, plain Greek yogurt, honey, and vanilla.

I threw some pickles into a small bowl for good measure.

I also had an extra box of King Arthur’s Muffin mix lying around, so I made chocolate chip muffins.

In the end, it was a veritable … Read More

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It’s a little late to be putting this new womanly habit in place. But better late than never, right?

I started listening to the Feel Better Live More podcast episode with Dr. Mindy Pelz. She talks about the dramatic hormone shifts that happen to us during perimenopause and highlights specific strategies we can put in place.

I’m honestly only at the beginning of the episode but had to pause it before continuing. There are already things I want to put in place! I wanted to stop and get things going rather than listening through the whole two hours and producing a really long, overwhelming list.

So, this new womanly … Read More

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I was so sick and tired of my family complaining about our dinners. I had to come up with a new way to do dinner!

It’s so demoralizing to spend time meal planning and meal preparing only to have everyone hate what you’ve made. We are working on training the boys to simply say, “Thank you for cooking!” when they don’t like a meal rather than saying they don’t like a meal.

But still. It’s obvious they don’t like what I cook!

Luckily, we eat out twice a week (on Friday night and Saturday nights), so I only have to worry about five meals rather than seven.

I say “I” … Read More

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