Whew!  What a day.  It was epic and fun. First: A face-painting-breakfast-party at our house for five little faces.  (One dragonfly and four butterflies.)  I bought a face paint kit in 2011 for $19.99 with a 40% coupon from Michaels, and it is one of the the best investments I’ve ever made.  It came with (good) paints, different sized brushes, a...

Wow… it’s been a weird week.  I’ve been sick.  Chemo sick (normal for me, though this drug regimen is not predictable from day-to-day or week-to-week) plus some other run-of-the-mill infection.  I had a fever for the first time in a long while, and — dang — I’d forgotten that shivering-under-ten-blankets-feeling that accompanies a...

Last week, on Chemo Eve, Brad found me in the driveway at dusk frantically pulling out my long dead (sorry neighbors) summer plants from my outdoor pots and winterizing the pots.  The kids were running amok, the car wasn’t unloaded from our Wisconsin road trip to visit the grandparents, and yet I was out wrangling outdoor messes.  Brad looked at me like I was...

I’m big on calling out truths in the people around me.  If you have a dream or a goal and we’re friends, don’t tell me unless you want me to ask you about it.  Often.  My friends know this and I’m received often with equal parts gratitude and chagrin.  I can’t help it. For years one friend has had a dream to take her passion for science...

Five-year-olds really are pretty awesome. Two weeks ago(ish), Greta comes home with her un-eaten snack. As I pull it out of her backpack, I’m surprised; they have snack time every day. It’s apple season, and she had Honeycrisp apple slices in her bag for her snack.  Sale season for Honeycrisp apples is a thing in our house. Me: “G, why didn’t...