Posts About around here

day trip

August 17, 2015

What a treat to see Megan, one of my best ever friends, on Saturday. Even better to meet her at the home of Becky and Dan, longtime family friends of ours, and to feel so welcomed despite the suddenness of our descent. And we do not arrive quietly. Megan lives in Nashville now, and I miss her dearly. So when I found out that she would be in Austin briefly (less than a 3-hour drive away) my plans were made. The kids and I hopped in the car – well, after two hours of packing and preparation, I don’t mean to make us sound so carefree – and we were there a little after nine. We spent the day chatting…
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weekending

August 10, 2015

The first thing that comes to my mind as I sit down to write is: it’s hot. I hear talk around me of teachers and kids getting ready for school, and aren’t Christmas trees out in some of the stores? but here summer has just hit its stride. Also, our air conditioner is broken again. It seems to be something pretty major this time so we have gotten three different opinions, and now I think we must bite the bullet. I’ll be honest, I have shed some tears over this as it is a heavy financial burden and that’s something I’m anxious about anyway. But all we can do is all we can do and we will just try our…
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a day at the zoo

August 5, 2015

My friend Lauren got Meredith a ticket to the zoo for her birthday. On Monday I took the day off and we went; just the girls. She wanted to wear her zebra-print shorts to match the zebras. It was hot, but there was enough shade and air conditioned exhibits to make it bearable. We stayed for over five hours. There was a chimp lying on his back holding his foot and eating. It was so lazy and great. The gorillas came so close to us. They had such kind, sad eyes. Meredith played on all the playgrounds and rode the carousel and pet the goats. We packed a picnic lunch and got ice cream for a treat. We saw the…
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her own bed

August 4, 2015

Well, Meredith sleeps in her own bed now. Sort of. I say that after two good nights and one disaster. This is how it went down: We talked about it a lot on Saturday. I told her what our new bedtime routine would be (bath, brush teeth, read books, sing songs, say prayers, lights out – we have been very lax about the bedtime routine in the past) and I tried to be very straightforward about the fact that she sleeps in her own bed now. Not: if you sleep in your own bed you get a reward! Just: this is where you sleep now; you’re a big girl. She whined about it a little, but not much. Saturday night she got…
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around here

July 31, 2015

I’m not sleeping well. It’s been a problem for awhile now. The combination of Meredith staying up too late and Liam waking up all night (because if he’s not sick, he’s teething) is getting to me. Sometimes I feel like my whole life would be perfect if only the kids would sleep in their own beds and I could get a decent night’s sleep. How would you tackle it, if you had a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old who have slept in bed with you all their lives? And you have gone to sleep at the same time as them that whole time? And your 1-year-old still nurses at night? And the crib and the twin bed are in the same…
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