I needed to make a quick lunch for my husband, Coco and myself last week, and was at a loss. Then, I remembered that Real Simple, one of my favorite magazines ever, had a recipe in there that I was pretty sure I’d have all of the ingredients for. I admit, we keep a well-stocked [...]

Food is at the center of much of what goes on in our home. My husband and I love to eat. We also adore cooking. And thankfully, those two passions have rubbed off on our girls. Although Pea is now getting into a phase where she wants more control over what she eats. But I [...]

I had a bucket of old crayons. They were broken, chopped up, half-eaten, in some cases. But I held onto them. And I had no idea why, until today. Months ago, I picked up a copy of Martha Stewart’s “Good Things for Kids.” And then I threw it in our craft closet, just off the [...]

Last Wednesday was the opening day of our local weekly Farmer’s Market. Out of 80 vendors, barely 15 showed up. It was cold. And rainy. Yet there we were, my husband, my girls and myself. I’d been looking forward to this day for months. I wasn’t going to miss it for the world. Among the [...]

What is it with little kids and spaghetti? I’m willing to bet that there’s a picture of you in your parent’s home, sitting in a highchair, all of about one-year old, with spaghetti sauce smeared all over your face, in your hair. A noodle dangling from your nose. I can now add Coco to that [...]

I love food. We all do, in this house. And sometimes, it’s the simplest meals that knock the socks off the hardest. My mother, GiGi, and her fiance, were in town for Pea’s third birthday party. And so I did a lot of cooking. My mother didn’t cook when I was a kid. But my [...]

So technically, Pea turns three today. But… we celebrated her birthday with a party yesterday. The theme began as a tea party, since she’s all about her various tea sets right now. She has three that are currently in rotation, one is made of melamine from Target, another is porcelain from Chasing Fireflies and the [...]

I’ve made mention before of Pea’s absolute favorite book “in the whole wide world.” “Mouse Cookies & More: A Treasury.” It’s a rare night when we don’t read at least one of the stories in this collection. Of course, it goes without saying that the most requested story is the one about the moose and [...]

For the record, I am not a fan of registries. For weddings or baby showers. It’s just not my thing. When Sephora offers you an option to create a gift registry, you know that something in the universe is amiss. I love make-up. I do. And I’ve given beauty products as a gift before. But [...]

I dislike grocery shopping very much. This wasn’t always the case. But since we’ve moved to Utah, I’ve noticed that our weekly bill has nearly doubled. For a family of four. Two of who are a combined total of 53 pounds. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize this, but as [...]

Two years ago, for Mother’s Day, my husband took me down to Austin, Texas. We spent a weekend at Sibby Barrett’s personal estate, Juniper Hills Farm, where I learned some new cooking techniques. The course I was really interested in was the “How to Cook Fish” class. Because while I can whip up a Beef [...]

Hmm. I don’t think I should have used the word “sitter” to describe the girl who watched my daughters. It may have been misleading. She was a “mother’s helper.” She came in twice a week, five hours at a time, to help out. So for those of you who were wondering, “why doesn’t she just [...]

In a continuation of Sunday’s weepy post, I am still feeling a little melancholy over my little baby not being my little baby any longer. Technically, she’s not walking, so I can still call her a baby, right? I mean, she’s not officially a toddler until she can, well, toddle, right? Okay, good. I thought [...]

Coco woke up with a stomach bug today, the same one that her big sister has been suffering with all week. Let’s just say that her big day was peppered with lots of vomit and diarrhea. Not a lot of fun, although I am amazed at how her mellow and sunny disposition rarely changes, even [...]

Coco is turning one tomorrow. It’s turning out to be a much different celebration than I had imagined. The guest list includes myself, the birthday girl, her older sister, her father and her grandmother, GiGi. That’s it. Not such a big guest list, but I don’t think small kids need a lot of guests at [...]