Eye to Wonder

Happy Friday! The kids are off school today and recovering from a nasty cold, and we have visitors this weekend. Looking forward to a few fun adventures around town assuming everyone is well enough, as well as time to relax and hang with my sister and brother-in-law. Here are 5 things on my mind this week. 1. Decluttering. I made actual progress in decluttering this week! My goal for February was to declutter the entryways of our house (driveway, 2 doorways, broom closet, shelves/shoe rack the door). I felt actually motivated to make work on this and dropped off some donations today (not just from these areas). Things that helped: having a box in my closet to toss donations in when I noticed things we don’t want and listening to the Slob Comes Clean podcast by Dana K. White. I highly recommend her book Organizing for the Rest of Us , which I read a few years ago, and listening to her while I declutter has helped remind me of decluttering practices that helped in other seasons. It wa...

Happy Friday! This week has been more routine than usual, and I’ve been trying to notice and appreciate all the ordinary, sweet moments: the kids playing with dolls on the trampoline, a little free library find I'm enjoying, So much Mo Willems, and my older daughter reading to her little sister. The news and current events are horrifying, everything wasn’t perfect, but there were lots of good moments in our little corner of the world. In the spirit of noticing the good, I thought I’d share a roundup of some favorites this month. Here they are, in no particular order. 1.) Listening to the New Music Friday playlist by NPR on Fridays and throughout the weekend. One of my intentions this year was to listen to more new music and make a playlist of favorite songs for the year. One easy thing I’ve been doing is throwing on the New Music Friday playlist each week. I don’t listen to the entire thing since it’s really long, but I usually find one or two artists with new music that I enjo...

We are in full-on festive season mode! Hanukkah began on Sunday, it’s the last week of school, and then with Christmas next week everything feels full, but in a mostly fun way. Usually I’m pretty minimalist/simplicity focused; I like going to bed early, having quiet time to myself, and habits and routines. But this year, I’m kind of leaning into a more is more philosophy, particularly when it comes to gatherings and celebrations. 1.)This has been a big week for hosting/gatherings. We had a feast of the seven fishes party (biggest hits were the tuna pasta & whole ocean white fish), and the next night we had another family over to celebrate Hanukkah with brisket, latkes, and dreidel! Then, this weekend, we are also going to a Hanukkah party at the youth rabbi’s house on Saturday, and a family Christmas party on Sunday. This is a lot for one week, but I think it will be a fun and memorable week and after lots of quieter holiday years, I’m kind of loving all the time to connect and ...

Happy Friday! I meant to post Wednesday, and then M caught a 24-hour stomach bug on one of her preschool mornings when I had planned to cross off a lot of lingering to-do items. She’s all better, but it helped me to decide to lower the bar and make life easier this month. We got groceries delivered, which we almost never do, but it really wasn’t an option to take her anywhere. I also put some easy meals on the weeks’ rotation, and I decided to scale back blogging a little this month. I want to keep up momentum after NaBloPoMo, but realize I can still be flexible. I realized that posting 3 times a week is an arbitrary and self-imposed goal, so I am shifting to a once or twice a week posting schedule this month. This leaves more room to enjoy the holiday events, cook for the two events we are hosting, relax when possible and just keep up with the normal cooking, cleaning, life admin. Plus this leaves me with more time to enjoy other blogs and books! Here are five things that made me ha...

Happy Friday! It’s been nice to settle back into normal rhythms after traveling last week. It was a great trip, but it’s nice to be back in our own space and our usual routine. Some things on my mind this week: 1. M played her first board game, Monkey Around ! We are definitely a board game family, and it’s exciting to see our youngest start to participate in this family tradition. Joel, A, and I also spent a lot of time playing the game Magical Athletes , which is extremely silly and fun to play with kids and grown-ups.The tagline to the game is "a party game of pure racing chaos," which basically sums up the experience. 2. I finished the book Wreck , which made me laugh out loud a lot. I was reading the book while giving M a bath, and she would laugh really hard with me and then look up like, why are we laughing? I think there was something poignant for me about reading a novel that centered on a woman’s relationships with her adult children. It’s a stage of life that ...

Happy Friday! Hope that everyone is enjoying a low-key Friday or some Black Friday shopping if that’s your thing. 1.) I woke up with a bad sinus headache, which was a bummer, but I listened to this Ezra Klein episode while I waited for the medicine to kick in. It was a replay from 2023, but I highly recommend giving it a listen if you haven’t. It’s called “‘The Quiet Catastrophe’ Brewing in our Social Lives,” and is all about how modern society structures undermine social connection. I’m thinking a lot about themes in the episode including control, frequency of interactions, third spaces, imperfect social interactions, and privacy vs. communal space. 2.) Speaking of third spaces, we visited a great library today! I love a good library + coffee shop visit, which was the perfect thing for a blustery day. We thought about heading out for a nature walk, but our kids are definitely not used to the low temps and elected to stay indoors instead. I loved all the things you could check out ...

I decided to try out the 5 on a Friday format. Here are 5 things on my mind or that I’m loving this week. 1. The most exciting thing this week is that my friend Emily published her debut novel, Heart Check . She’s been pursuing her dream of being a professional writer for years, and it is so exciting to see her dreams come true! It was such a treat to head to our local romance bookstore, Meet Cute, and pick it up this week. It is such a sweet YA hockey romance. The characters made me feel nostalgic for high school, and it was a cozy, fun read. 2.M has gotten really into singing and dancing, which is pretty freaking cute. My personal favorite this week have been her belting out “Lay All Your Love on Me,” by Abba. She also stopped me while we unpacked groceries to have a dance party. I love it so much. 3. We’ve gotten into making Detroit-Style pizza in deep dish pans, and it is my favorite thing to make people now. Last weekend we brought up the pans and dough and made some for my p...