I was recently singled out as thinking that raising children was all rainbows and unicorns.

The dark truth behind living with the funniest people in the world is this: they have flaws. Some things, I'd go so far as to say my kids and husband suck at doing.

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In eighth grade, I failed Camping Skills. Seriously, that was a PE class, and I failed it. I didn't just fail it, I failed spectacularly. Our fire wouldn't light and when it finally did, somehow the tent cover blew into it and caught fire also. We scrambled the eggs before we cooked the bacon. When we took the written test, it was like I had never ( Read more... )

I saw this article about drinking in front of kids this morning, which was timely because I was just discussing this with some friends a few days ago.

Frankly, sometimes I am uncomfortable with the drinking-for-relief culture that surrounds us. When people make repeated jokes about it being "wine o'clock" or "three-martini playdates" or needing a ( Read more... )

You know that game telephone, where you whisper something to someone and it gets passed around the circle, and then everyone laughs uproariously at how distorted it became? It's like that, only less funny ( Read more... )

Petra the Wonder Badger is TWO YEARS OLD today! If you ask her how old she is, she holds up one finger on each hand and says, "I'm TWO!" She's a trip, bossing us around all the time and getting into (and climbing) everything. She's a master climber and getter-into-er. She's definitely my most toddlerlike toddler, in that she behaves more like the ( Read more... )

Badger gets bored, but she has no idea what it means to be bored. She knows that she is something, but can't put her finger on it; thus, sitting in the carpool line gives her an opportunity to enumerate the things possibly responsible for her dissatisfaction ( Read more... )

Anya was assigned a project: to choose her favorite book, prepare a bit to tell the class about why it is her favorite book, and make a visual aid. I found the slip in her folder over the weekend; she didn't mention it until Sunday, and then only in passing. I asked what book she planned to discuss and she told me, and described her plan to make a ( Read more... )

TinyHouse was built in 1941, which by American standards is quite old, and older houses are, shall we say, quirky.In 1941, a built-in shower was not standard for a Sears catalog house, so our bathroom was clearly renovated at some point in the ensuing decades. We know this for multiple reasons: showers weren't standard then, while renovating we ( Read more... )

It's not going to look like it does on Pinterest, okay?

It probably wouldn't even if you did it yourself, but don't let that stop you from doing it.

Here's what it isn't going to look like:

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Sometimes you need a bad word. I'm not talking about when you stub your toe and hop around yelling half-swears, but rather when you're making a point ( Read more... )