In the Rocky Mountains, on a clear September day that I had a moment of clarity–I knew exactly what I was going to make Ellie for Christmas that year. In my mind, I had a perfect visual and wished I had brought along a notebook so I could quickly sketch it out. But really, there […]
It’s been a while, and that has been by design. Being 30, for me, was about getting stuff done and seeing where that could take me. Being 31 was about focusing on all the things I needed to do to feel whole. Worn out from a self imposed year of blogging, I started my 31st […]
I was done with 2018 a while ago and wrote my thoughts about it for my birthday. I’ve spent the past month treating it like a new year and actually prepping for the new year. I like to tell people I’m not big on resolutions and that I prefer to constantly be improving myself and […]
This project was about a year in the making. Last Christmas, Ellie and I had a niece and two nephews to buy for and there was another on the way and a fifth would come into the picture a little later. Daunted by the prospect of having to buy gifts for several kids, we came […]
I have dry, itchy skin. My wife has dry, itchy skin. Our dog has dry, itchy skin. Our cat, well she’s the odd one out. Every winter it is the same. I get really dry and really itchy. We also get static shocks just looking at each other, or maybe we just still have that […]
I’m not professionally trained in most of the things that I do. Despite this fact, there are things I think I do exceptionally well. For example, I have never been trained to cook but I have put in thousands of hours studying cooking shows and practicing with meals and now I’d consider myself a decent, […]
Do you clean your stove, I mean like really, really clean your stove only to turn around ten minutes later and there’s food splattered on it and a splash of pasta sauce even though you didn’t make pasta sauce? That’s kind of how my whole life is when it comes to cleaning. I love the […]
When it comes to holidays, I’m not much of a decorator. There’s a whole lot of effort that goes into decorations for very little payoff. Most of the time, you’re decorating your house for you alone. A few days or weeks after, you take them down and put them in a box for next year’s […]
In our ongoing quest to have a finished basement, Ellie and I just reached a major milestone. The drywall in the basement has all been hung. It has been a long journey, but maybe it shouldn’t have been. We started this whole thing on a bit of a whim back in March. A pile of […]
I always thought my family was a bit different than the families of my friends. The traditions we kept, I just assumed they were ours. At times, I was embarrassed by them or didn’t know how to explain them. I figured other people would think the traditions were weird. Little did I know, more people […]