Memes are funny because they are true, and this one made me laugh out loud. While I am not a pumpkin spice latte drinker, I am a white girl wearing yoga pants at this very moment and I do like fall. (Image found here, or all over Pinterest.) So here’s my (possibly inevitable) entry into the […]
You should tri it
September 11, 2014 by
If you start running for health or because it is on your bucket list (or to lose baby weight like I did, seven years ago), the first question, real or in your head, is always “are you going to run a 5K?” Once you’ve done that, the question becomes “how about a half?” and when you’ve […]
On trail and on the town
September 1, 2014 by
This summer my oldest son turned 13 — a momentous occasion for all of us. He is officially a teenager. I am officially a parent of a teenager. They weren’t kidding about that “the days are long but the years are fast” thing. It was truly a blink of an eye. But he underwent a […]
Summer’s great and all: 4 reasons I’m ready for back-to-school
August 26, 2014 by
The pencils have been sharpened and new shoes are at the door. We have bus schedules, new teachers, open houses, stiff jeans. We are ready, so ready, and no one more so than me. Here are the four reasons I (and my family) need to get back to school. Beer and takeout don’t look all that […]
Type S for Struggler. Or, why Jen can’t have nice things.
July 15, 2014 by
If you are even a casual reader of this blog I’m sure you’ve pegged me as a Type-A personality, and it’s true, I love a good checklist, I stockpile necessities so there’s never a mad dash to the store, and I’m half done Christmas shopping now, in July. I seem to have it together. I’m […]
Women and the Confidence Gap
June 20, 2014 by
“Lean in” (usually appearing as #leanin, and only sometimes ironically) has become a kind of shorthand among my female friends, an expression of encouragement, pride, or solidarity that can range in meaning from a collective, been-there groan at some workplace unfairness or a you-got-this-you-go-girl rallying cry. It started a little over a year ago, when I […]
Mama’s big adventure (Guest post)
June 10, 2014 by
My friend Heidi is mama to a toddler and travels the world doing original research for her doctoral thesis in anthropology, while teaching and presenting around this country too. To say she’s leaning in is an understatement. I’m so proud of her and in awe of her courage — one trip involved several days’ travel on […]
That time I judged myself: Teeth whitening
May 26, 2014 by
I’m fairly handy with the tooth-whitening function of Picmonkey and similar photo editing tools, and maybe I should have just left it at that. But I didn’t. I did this instead: paid my dentist a lot of money to whiten my teeth. I didn’t expect it to be fun, really, but neither was I prepared […]