The Unexpected Housewife

I have recently had so many conversations about how to balance life with a busy schedule-be it working outside the home, children, caring for parents, etc, that I wanted to put down some of the things that I have done to TRY to balance my life.  For my close friends, you know that I get mixed up, forget the book for book club, and serve dinner as cereal, so there is no firm solution-and I am no maven at this, but I am learning and have a few items that help! 1. I never cook dinner on a weeknight.  Never.  Why? After working at the office, commuting, driving people places and walking the dog, there's no way.  I also love cooking and I know if I make it a horrible chore, it will no longer be cathartic.   So---once or twice a month, I figure out about 17-20 meals that I can cook. Costco or Walmart shopping done, I have all the ingredients.  I have a list of what I am going to cook and no joke---I plot all meals in pencil on the family calendar.  I ...

About four years ago, the four of us went on a cruise.  It was a restful and fun vacation.  It was the first big vacation we took after we adopted the kids so it was like I had found heaven in that someone else would make them a sandwich. So this year we decided to repeat the experience. My mom joined us this year-and I hope future years that the list will grow because the more the merrier--with about 5000 people on board, it's great when you know a few, right? I literally had a countdown going and couldn't wait.  We drove to Florida on Friday, stayed at our fave port hotel and then got aboard the ship on Saturday. It's always fun to go someplace you have been with someone who's not been-and see it through their eyes.  It was that way with my mom--she was enamored and found the experience to be exciting and fun.  We were on the ship for about 10 minutes and Bob found me a rum punch.  Bless that man and our partnership. It was really great week, full of ...

Our family recently purchased a new camper---it's pretty sweet.  Let me tell you a bit of this backstory. Bob and I loved camping-even independently before we knew each other.  In college, I worked for an outdoor store and have loved camping ever since.  It's my inner hippie that I now hide under my suit.  Catch me camping and I'm in a doo rag, drinking a beer with my old koozie and walking late night with my dog.  Bob says every now and then the hippie comes out.  She is full on today. When we married, we took a few tent trips together and had fun.  Truth be told, Ben the Dog never really slept when we camped, always ready to defend me.  Bella the Bulldog, Bob's dog, took his cue, and one of our laughable memories now was that after a long night in the tent, Bob turned to me and said, "So glad to see NO ONE slept last night." The kids came along and we introduced them.  We tent camped on Grandfather Mt in NC--now a treasured and special p...

This April, Bob and I will be married seven years.  One of my favorite things about being married seven years and having a ten and eleven year old is the math people try to do their head when I tell them the numbers that don't classically add up.  It's comical. Seven years.  People talk about the seven year itch.  There is even a movie dedicated to the topic.  Ugh.     I mentioned recently to a friend this weekend, that almost seven years later, it's keeps getting better with Bob.  She responded "That's the way it's supposed to be."    It made me realize that I didn't totally get that at face value. Truth is, this is right about the time that my first marriage failed.  I'll spare you details because frankly, it's not that interesting and not my favorite topic.  But, in that case, everything became hard, so when I realized that this time around, things keep getting better, I thought this was worthy of a blog. Looki...

For Christmas the kids received a trip to Florida from us and my mother.  The trip included two days at Universal so the kids could fulfill their dream to actually become wizards at Universal Studios-and then two days at Disney.  When the kids received T-shirts with accompanying reservation documents, they were baffled and it required enough explanation that Bob assured them that no one was recruiting them for the FBI. We packed the car Christmas night.  It was all set. The next morning, we got in the car.  It wouldn’t start.  At all.  We charged the battery for a while.  Nope.  It won’t start. No problem.  Let’s move everything to the truck.  Because driving the new F150 is what I wanted to do. But the trunk won’t open because the battery is dead.  It was really fun moving all the luggage out of the back of the Highlander through the back seat, out of the car, and into the bed of the truck.  That was a unique way to s...

When I was little, my family spent Thanksgiving with my mom's lifelong friend, Eileen, and her family.  They were 'aunt and uncle' to us, and their children were my 'cousins'.   I adored Thanksgiving.  When I think back now,  the memory feels warm, smells like amazing food, and the day was one of love and comfort.  The evening before, Dad would make his pies.  Dad was a baker, gifted with sugar, and was known in our circles as the person to ask to bring desserts.  He'd do his handywork, and that would feed the crowd.  On Thanksgiving, we'd watch the parade religiously, as my parents were full blooded New Yorkers.  We'd pack up, and drive south about 90 minutes to my aunt's, and pile out.  My uncle would always come out to meet us in the drive way, so happy to see us arrive.  He and Dad were great friends and it was one of those amazing blessings where everyone in the crew authentically loved each other and was thrilled to see ...

Many of you know I am TRYING to write a book about the past three years and how it has rocked our world.  Because of that my blog posts have been fewer because I am working on that manuscript. Here's an excerpt of what I am working on....this takes us back to when the kids were here for the weekends only and we were transitioning to them living with us.  Feedback is welcome and feel free to be critical.  I am sure the publishing world will be. Bob and I had planned to go to Hilton Head for Columbus Day weekend but I canceled our fancy hotel reservations several weeks prior because we had the kids that weekend.  I was kind of disappointed because I loved nothing more than the beach with Bob, but it had to be done. I was sitting in a bubble bath on Wednesday night, having just flown in from a business trip.  Bob walked in and handed me a sheet of paper. “For you”, he said. I opened the paper.  It was a confirmation for a condo rental in Hilton ...