• Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Favorite Things,  Food,  Friends,  Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    I Nearly Nailed @MomoFali In The Eye With A Gummy Bear Last Night.

    November 8, 2015

    Honestly. It was close. More on that in a bit. The 2015 BlogHer Food conference is in the books, and it was awesome. I loved that it was in my hometown for many reasons, not the least of which was that a bunch of my local friends (some food bloggers, some not) were in attendance. Working a conference on my birthday when work doesn’t seem like work AND I’m surrounded by so many people I love wasn’t too shabby of a gig, I have to say. My friend Aimee Giese of Greeblehaus, who I’ve known online since 2008-ish but with whom I’ve never spent more than a minute or two…

    Read More
  • Blessings,  Fun in Chicago

    Exercising My Free Birthday Pass

    November 7, 2015

    I was out/up late last night and so I’m using a “Get out of Jail Free” card (figuratively! FIGURATIVELY!) for NaBloPoMo today. Yesterday was great, working the conference and seeing more friends than I typically do on my birthday, and then Momo flew in after dinner (and boy, are her arms tired ba dum bum!) so all in all it was a very good day. Now we’re hitting the ground running for the second day of BlogHer Food 15 and, well, the end. Happy Saturday!

    Read More
  • Blessings,  Childhood Memories

    On Birthdays.

    November 6, 2015

    Here’s the thing. I’m just not sure how many posts I can write about my birthday. One more for now, I guess. I’ve had many memorable birthdays, including my 30th, which was when Jim, my sister, and Kate pulled off the unthinkable and gave me a surprise party in my own house. There was the one when I was four and my mom served pigs in blankets, and one of my friends threw up all over the table. Every year I think of her and while I can’t even remember her name, I wonder what happened to her. I fully realize that’s weird. There were the ones when I was…

    Read More
  • Blessings,  Friends

    Eight.

    October 28, 2015

    Today is my eighth blogoversary and while I don’t have the time to write what I consider a “proper post”, I really didn’t want to get to midnight without saying something here. I mean, eight years is pretty good! Thanks to the Facebook “On This Day” app, I was reminded of the post I wrote two years ago. (Wait, apparently I didn’t feel the need to write something last year for Year Seven? Okay, that’s weird.) ANYWAY, two years ago I made a really cool list of the experiences I’ve been afforded as a result of blogging. The year before, I wrote about some of the knowledge I’ve gained since…

    Read More
  • Amazing People,  Blessings,  Confessions,  Friends,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    Coping Skills For Mostly Happy People

    August 25, 2015

    I’m lucky in that I don’t have too many bad days. I’m constantly counting my blessings and I realize all the time that my life is pretty darn good. I am a completely normal human being though, which means that I’m not happy all the time. Life is a roller coaster: ups AND downs are part of the deal. Yesterday? Was a downer. Being a mostly happy person, I tend to freak people out when I’m having a bad day. It’s not that my friends think I cannot have a bad day (or am not allowed a bad day), but when I’m walking around living a 21st century Pollyanna life,…

    Read More
  • Blessings,  Confessions,  Family Fun,  My Kids Have Mad Skillz,  Reflections on Parenting

    They Come Back.

    August 9, 2015

    Jim and I spent today driving up to Madison, Wisconsin, grabbing a moving truck, and moving our older son back home. Nothing bad happened; it’s just that the six-month internship he took on ended (as did his lease) and he hasn’t found a new place of employment yet. Most parents probably don’t think, when they send their kids off to college (or a non-college alternative), that they’ll be back. If they did, I know there would be far fewer tears and less anxiety about the process. In an ideal world, the kids leave home, get their traditional (or non-traditional) education, find great jobs, support themselves without a problem and then…

    Read More
  • Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Family Fun

    On Holiday

    May 22, 2015

    I just returned home from out of town, again. I spent the last couple of days in Madison, Wisconsin to attend a conference for women in leadership (more on that next week). I’ve visited Madison a few times this year, since D works and lives there, and I’ve truly fallen in love with it. It’s an awesome town with beauty everywhere you look, radiating out from the center of town and the Capitol building. Last night we were lucky enough to catch this sunset on the campus of UW-Madison. No filter!! I am terribly blessed to have the ability to gallivant all over the country; traveling is one of my…

    Read More
  • Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Favorite Things,  Fun in Chicago,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures,  Proud Moments,  Something That Could Change Your Life

    All Over Again.

    May 5, 2015

    It’s all over, again. Every year, the experience of bringing a LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER show to the stage in Chicago seems to fly by with more speed. On Sunday, our fourth show took place at the beautiful Athenaeum Theatre and, while it was about ninety-five minutes long, it seemed more like ten. Add the three actual hours of pre-show stuff (photos, run-through, etc.) and you have…about twenty virtual minutes. Each year I find myself trying to figure out how to freeze time a little bit. Each year I also struggle to write a recap that adequately captures everything about show day, and frankly it’s impossible to do so. Expressing…

    Read More
  • Blessings,  How To

    Invest In Yourself Because Life Is Too Short.

    April 24, 2015

    I ran into an old friend at the store a couple of weeks ago. We used to see each other all the time: her older daughter went to school—kindergarten through grade twelve!—with my older son. These days, though we still live in the same neighborhood, we don’t have that common bond anymore and at most, one of us waves at the other while walking the dog. On the rare occasion when we see each other out in town, it’s fun to catch up. This time, she asked me what I was up to and I gave her just enough information about my activities to satisfy her curiosity without making her…

    Read More
  • Blessings,  Roxie

    Making Seventy-Seven Look Good

    March 23, 2015

    It’s Roxie’s eleventh birthday today and we’re celebrating! Err, I’m celebrating. (Jim doesn’t celebrate dog birthdays.) Where does the time go??? Roxie has accomplished so much in her eleven years (seventy-seven dog years, whew!). In addition to electrocuting herself as a puppy, actually eating a kid’s homework once, getting skunked, eating entire loaves of bread, bags of chocolate*, and part of a container of baking cocoa and living to tell about it, she has also run away for an afternoon (twice), ripped up paper money that totaled approximately $73 for all incidents, rolled in rabbit poo multiple times every summer, destroyed many stuffed animals, scared an infinite number of people…

    Read More