Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving with loved ones! This morning I started taking down all our fall decorations in preparation for a Christmas and Hanukkah decorating extravaganza later this weekend. I was a little sad to dismantle our thankfulness wall, but saved some of my favorite entries, ones that feel particular to November…
The trees are bare, the temperatures are dropping, and soon the ground will be covered with a blanket of snow. It’s time for some winter hygge ideas to make the season cozy and pleasurable. What is Hygge? The Danish concept of hygge (pronounced hoo-guh) doesn’t have an exact translation in English. In The Little Book…
This week, Minneapolis has been gray and cloudy every day. So often our moods reflect the weather outside; right now, as I gaze out the living room window at flurries and a sky devoid of color, it’s hard not to feel lethargic and blah. That’s why this November, I’m trying to be intentional about bringing…
This past Sunday was one of those blah November days that made me just want to snuggle on the couch with a quilt, a cup of tea, and a good book. Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? But certain little boys–three of them, to be exact–were not gonna let that happen. If I wanted some time to…
To move beyond a brief Thanksgiving Day conversation when it comes to focusing on gratitude, I’m trying out two different things with the boys this year. The first is gratitude postcards. The second is a gratitude wall. Now let me start out by saying I’m aware there are way prettier, more-Instagram-worthy gratitude activities out there….
Every Thanksgiving Day, we ask the kids to name things they’re thankful for. While doing so is a nice practice, it’s usually limited to a one-minute conversation before the big feast. And though they always say “my family,” it’s spoken in a perfunctory, I-know-this-is-what-my-parents-want-to-hear type of way. In short, I’m doubtful that this thankfulness exercise…
In March of 2020, I checked out this drawing book from the library, and it changed my life. Dramatic opening line? Yes. True statement? Also yes! By using just simple shapes and lines, I made a sailboat, then a giraffe, then a bunch more stuff. The kids got into it, too, and we found other…
It is not easy to love Minnesota in the month of November. Outside it’s empty trees, biting wind, gray days with flurries of snow. Late sunrises and early sunsets. We have months of snow and ice in front of us, and it will probably be April before I again feel the sun on my bare…
Let me start by saying I have never been good at drawing. I know everyone says that, but I mean it. I once played a Pictionary-type game at a baby shower. My friend looked at my drawing, brows furrowed, and started laughing. I wasn’t offended; I cracked up, too, because what I’d sketched was objectively…
