Travel: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library
History is fun to learn about! Especially if it involves a bit of travel, so let’s get you prepped in case you are planning to travel to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. If you’ve never been to a presidential library, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library is a good place to start because it holds a special place in history. Prior to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency (1933 – 1945), a president’s documents and items procured from his time in office were considered personal property. As such, at the end of a presidency or at the end of a president’s life, these items might be sold or dispersed. Many were…
Memorial Day 2019
Happy Memorial Day to my friends in the United States. As with many things in the United States, even the origin of Memorial Day is a debated topic. This is because decorating the graves of soldiers has happened for a long, long time and nailing down a precise start date is tricky. However, many think the Memorial Day we celebrate, or Decoration Day as it was first called, was originally started to honor those soldiers who died during America’s Civil War. Memorial Day wasn’t declared a federal holiday until over 100 years later in 1971, but it continues to honor those who died while serving in the U.S. military. If…
Happy List: #120
Hi! For all my readers in the U.S., are you ready for the long Memorial Day Weekend? We will probably spend our weekend at the lake if it is nice and go to a parade on Monday. You know I love a parade! To recap the week on the blog, I shared a glimpse into how I organize my kitchen. I am pretty organized about some things, but there are other areas, like my bathroom counter, that always need help. This week we celebrated my children’s birthdays. They did not have a party this year, but we had a special outing on Sunday that was filled with go karts, amusement…
5 Kitchen Organization Strategies I Use Wherever We Move
Let’s just all admit that we are curious about how other people live. Even if it is highly curated or grossly exaggerated, that’s why reality TV, HGTV, social media and magazines stay in business. I once had a job that required me to really consider how other people might live in order to help design homes that would function well for them. I even became certified as a focus group moderator so that I could conduct some of this primary research myself. People opened up and shared all sorts of interesting things during these focus groups and a hot topic was always kitchen design. Just because a kitchen looks pretty…
Turning Nine and Twelve
We interrupt this blog’s regularly scheduled content for a special announcement. As of today we have a 9-year-old and a 12-year-old in the house! Whoop, whoop! My kids were born 3 years and 1 day apart, so May is kind of like Christmas for us. It’s magical and meaningful. It’s exciting and full of anticipation. It’s jam-packed with activities, presents and delicious food. It’s also…expensive! Haha! That’s what we get for having two May babies. For the record, they are totally worth it! I’d really hate to admit (so I won’t!) what percentage of my thoughts revolve around whether the decisions Handy Husband and I have made as parents are going…
Happy List: #119
Hello! This week I shared a potentially controversial opinion. I ditched my throw pillows and I’m not sorry about it. How long will this madness last? Nobody knows. Did you catch the reveal of my new outdoor dining chairs? I love them! I’d love them even more if Mother Nature would quit this rain business so I can be outside before the temperatures turn hotter than Hades. Here’s the Happy List! COUSINS CHART I’ve been labeling my relationship to my cousin’s children all wrong! This cousins chart article from Better Homes and Gardens helped me figure it out. It also explained the difference between great aunt and grand aunt. Another label…
Navy Blue Outdoor Dining Chairs
I mentioned a few weeks ago in this Happy List post that I was anxiously awaiting the delivery of my new navy blue outdoor dining chairs. They arrived and I can finally uncross all my fingers and toes because the chairs are even better than I hoped. And thank goodness because returning the outdoor dining chairs would have been a giant pain. Oy! Also, where I live on the East Coast seems to have a glorious, but short weather sweet spot. Not too hot. Not too cold. And not too many bugs! That weather sweet spot is now and I fully intend to take advantage of it this year since…
One Year Without Throw Pillows
Slap on your party hats because today is an important anniversary. I am celebrating one year without throw pillows! Yes, I know it’s a weird thing to celebrate. I am a little weird though, so just roll with it! I have been a card-carrying member of Team Throw Pillow my entire adult life. I love how throw pillows look. I love how they can quickly change the vibe of your space. I love that they aren’t super expensive. I love the cushiony effect throw pillows provide. But guess what? I’ve also been harboring a grudge against throw pillows for the entire time that I’ve been on Team Throw Pillow. See,…
Happy List: #118
Hello! I hope you all had a great week. Mine has felt very full, so I am happy the weekend is almost here. If anything about my website has been wonky (or wonkier than usual) this week, I apologize. Please bear with us. Handy Husband has been working behind-the-scenes on the site in the last 8 days to improve a variety of technical things that search engines care about. One “improvement” can inadvertently cause another feature to completely stop working. It is a good thing I did not get my blood pressure checked this week! On Monday I shared the trash my son found in the forest. I do love…
Books My Kids Are Reading Part 11
It has been longer than usual since my last “Books My Kids Are Reading” post. We’re still consuming stacks and stacks of books, but not as many that I’m reading out loud to the kids. In fact, there are only three in this list that I read aloud to the kids and there’s a reason for that. My 3rd grader needed to work on reading comprehension. Since I am a sucker for reading “just one more page” when the kids ask, it was cutting into his nightly independent reading time. We did a nighttime reset so that he has a solid 25 – 30 minutes of independent reading time. When…
