10!

A few months back JR and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary (10!). Inspired by a card I saw in Martha Stewart Living last February which had several envelopes glued together to make one long card, I made a folded card for JR with an envelope for each year we've been married. 

Inside each envelope was a card that shared my favorite memory from that year, and a photo that went with the memory. (In 2010, it was the birth of our little girl Em, so the picture was of our older two children holding baby Em on the day she came home from the hospital).

The front flap of each envelope was taped to the back of the year in front of it (for example, the flap of 2010 was taped to the back of 2009). I taped the sides of the flap and also the bottom of the flap as seen above. Note that you need to use sticky tape so that the card holds together, I used washi tape in my first attempt and it fell apart when I folded my card up. You can also glue the flap instead if you don't want to see any tape between the envelopes.

Then fold up your card accordian style, tie with a string, and add a little tag. Perhaps my favorite part of making this card was going back through all our old photos and finding a picture for each year. Watching our little family grow from a young married couple, to working newlyweds, to parents of one tiny baby... then two, then three, and now four beautiful kids. It's a little like seeing your life on fast forward and reminded me how happy I am to spend my time with these special people.

Here is a template you can use for the cards. Cards print 4 to a page and fit in size A2 envelopes (I like the ones from Paper Source because they come in such lovely colors). I only went back to 1991, since due to the work involved, this card is probably best for couples who have been together less than 20 years! 

I think this same idea could also make a thoughtful, non-cheesy Valentine's Day card. Maybe I should make a red or heart version?

the balancing act

Last January I spoke on a panel at Alt Design Summit about Work/Life Balance. And I've spent the last 9 month trying to follow my own advice.

I spoke at Alt about how I see the Work/Life Balance as a juggle. We have these balls in the air: jobs, kids, freelance work, family responsibilities, volunteering, husbands, hobbies, church obligations, housekeeping, blogging.. I could go on and on. 

But not all our balls weigh the same. Some are heavier than others, some are more fragile. There are some balls we can drop and then pick up a little while later. Some require more energy (and might not be worth juggling at all) and some balls we don't ever want to put down.

I think the most important part of living a balanced life is deciding which balls you need to keep in the air, and which you can set aside for a bit (or get rid of altogether). It's hard work to keep all those balls in the air at once, but we often feel that we need to. That we can somehow go on juggling and juggling forever.

In fact, when we are most busy, we often take on even more balls.. like that juggler at the circus who is already juggling three pins, a chainsaw, two flaming torches, and a bowling ball.. and then has a little girl toss in one more ball just to show he can manage. And usually he does. But every once in a while, that one extra ball is just too much and everything comes crashing down.

There are certain balls I just can't drop. And others I don't need to be juggling at all. And so I've stepped away from this blog for a bit. It's been nice to have one less thing to juggle. This blog was starting to feel like a job of its own, and I never intended it to be that. I've enjoyed just being with my family and not worrying about documenting every little thing. 

We had a lovely summer. Mid-July we had our fourth baby, a sweet little boy I'll call Lee. He is a doll with big blue eyes and long eyelashes, and universally adored by all. 

Before each new baby, I try to put a few balls down. I take a little break from freelance work, I try to keep the older kids schedules loose, and I volunteer for less. Then I can add that newborn into my busy juggle without losing my balance too much. It always takes me a few months and then I start to ease into my new balancing act, reevaluating each ball as I go. 

I'm already starting to feel like I can pick up a few of those balls I set aside. I've signed up for a few new book projects, though I won't get started on them for a few months. And I'm feeling like I can give a little love to this blog again.

We'll see how the juggling act goes. 

Image from one of our favorite alphabet books, Bruno Munari's ABC.

father's day

Bee had her last day of kindergarten today, so I am feeling particularly nostalgic. Yesterday I went into her classroom for the last time for a little graduation ceremony and to help the kids make Father's Day cards. We repurposed the Mother's Day cards we made with her preschool group last year. (To paraphrase something I once heard Paula Scher say.. "Have one good idea, then keep re-doing it.")

The trick is to draw the head and body for each child, so it fills up the page nicely and fits in the frame (I made these ones from heavyweight construction paper). Have your kids draw first with a pen or black pencil, just the outlines of ears, eyes, nose, mouth, hair, etc. Then use colored pencils or crayons to fill in the details. I loved watching the kids draw their dads, trying to remember how their hair looks, what color their eyes are, what kind of shirt he likes to wear. 

This is Bee's. I love how she decorated her frame.. I am sure her father will feel very loved! When we got home from school I had my 7 year old son make one too (in the green frame at top), I especially love the shirt detail. Then they both filled out the "What I Know About My Dad" questionairre I taped to the back. The kids were really so sweet as they tried to think of good answers to all these questions. My favorite answer of the day came from a darling little 5 year old when I asked her "One thing that makes my dad happy is...". She thought about it for a minute and then said "Just that he has me in his life." I told her that was the best answer I had heard all day.

If you feel so inclined to make your own, here is a template for the head, and the questionairre (which prints two to a page).

mother's day

I found this old photo tucked in a drawer the other day and have been staring at it all week. I'm not sure exactly what month it was taken, but it shows my mom (looking stylish as usual) with my three older siblings. She may even have been pregnant with me at the time.. I'm her fourth.

I keep looking at this picture and seeing my own little family: my oldest boy, C who turns 8 in a few weeks; then my daughter Bee, who is 6; and our sweet Baby M who is almost 2. And our fourth baby will join us this summer, I'm due at the end of July. (We're hoping this baby won't come as early as Baby M did! Fingers crossed.) Four children! I keep looking at our dining room table and imagining all the chairs filled.

Because it's Mother's Day this Sunday, I've been thinking a lot about my mom and the way she raised us (I should give my dad some credit too, I guess). In many ways I hope I can replicate the family I grew up in.. I had a lovely childhood and my family is still close. My parents are a good team, and I look to them as examples of how to raise a family full of love, with ample teaching moments, a bit of discipline, and a lot of fun.

It's a special week for my family. My older sister (the cute one above with the saddle shoes and the big grin) is getting married this weekend, and we'll all be together for at least 24 hours. All five of my siblings and all their spouses, and all the eighteen children we have between us. I cannot wait! 

Loeffler Randall (a lovely shoe company I first heard about when Purl Soho designed some knit socks to wear with their rain boots) asked me to do a little Mother's Day Q & A. Hop over there to hear how my mom inspires me. Happy Mother's Day!

when the tooth fairy forgets

My daughter Bee lost her first tooth this past week, which is about the most exciting thing to happen to a kindergartener EVER. She was so excited to finally get to use her tooth fairy bunny and carefully placed her tooth in the tiny pocket and happily went to bed. And do you know what happened? The tooth fairy didn't come! The second night came and Bee remembered to put her tooth under her pillow again and can you believe.. the tooth fairy forgot TWO nights in a row! So we decided to take some drastic measures.

We thought maybe some big signs might help the tooth fairy find its way to Bee's tooth. We decided maybe Bee has a different tooth fairy than her brother C and maybe this little fairy doesn't know her way around our house or where to find Bee's tooth (not every kid has a tooth fairy bunny pillow).

Thankfully it worked! And the tooth fairy finally did come and Bee was very happy to find a $1 bill in her bunny's tiny pocket.

We can't be the only people this has happened to.. what happens at your house when the tooth fairy forgets?

the family gift swap

Both JR and I come from large families (there are six children in my family and five in his) so buying Christmas gifts for each and every sibling (and their spouses, and their children) has never quite worked for us.

The past few years in JR's family we have had a theme for our gifts, which has worked out really well. Two years ago we all gave each other board games (some of our family favorites are Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Settlers of Cattan). Last year we were inspired by the Favorite Things party I had just attended, where each person brings their "favorite" thing. Each family was to gather some of their favorite things and send it to their assigned family. You can see our gift from JR's older sister in the photo above. Each little package included some favorite thing from each person in their family (minty M&M's are a favorite of Dad's, mom loves scented candles, etc.) The kids had a great time unwrapping each one and learning about their cousin's and aunt's and uncle's favorites.

For our Favorite Thing, we shared our ritual of Tea Time, something JR and I were trying to do every few nights. We had gotten into a bad habit of putting the kids to bed and then retreating to our computers, to finish up emails and catch up on work. Some nights we would watch a show, but we both felt like we weren't really spending time together in the evenings (even if we were both in the same room). Tea Time was our solution.

The note read: After the children are tucked in bed and fast asleep, we take turns boiling the water on the stove and getting out the tea bags. We fill our mugs with hot water and let the tea steep, then stir in a little sugar. Tea takes some time to cool, so we sit and talk at the table while we sip our tea and discuss the business of our family. Sometimes we take the time to play a game. After a busy day, it's just nice to sit down together and talk for a minute. We hope you'll think so too.

We included two nice shaped mugs from Pottery Barn (perfect for sipping tea) and a pack of our favorite tea (our new favorite is Tazo's Wild Sweet Orange Tea.. it is delicious!) and our favorite card game (Coloretto).

How do you handle gift swaps in your family? Do siblings buy for each other? What about cousins? Because we now have about 18 children between us, we have the cousins do a swap too. We've tried different things, like the year we had everyone make cards for each other (not as big a thrill for the kids as we had hoped!). But the past few years we have done a book swap, each child picking out a book they think their assigned cousin would enjoy. So far, so good.

dad turns seventy

My dad recently turned seventy (!) and my mom and I wanted to do something special for him. Dad didn't want a big party, and he and my mom were going to be out of town on his actual birthday, so we decided to give him a gift that would continue all month long.

I printed 70 postcards on thick cardstock (110 lb.), each with a different number between 1 and 70. My mom helped gather addresses for seventy of the important people in my dad's life: family members, old classmates, dear friends and all his grandchildren. Included in the envelope was a card explaining that it was dad's birthday, and that they needed to send the postcard back sharing their funniest memory of Skip. To make things easy, I pre-addressed and pre-stamped the postcards so all they had to do was write a quick note on the back and toss the card in the mail.

When my dad got home a few days after his birthday, there were a handful of cards in his mailbox. He was surprised and delighted. And then the next day there were a few more cards, and the day after that, a few more. This continued on for the rest of the month until he had quite a stack. I hadn't asked people to stagger when they mailed their cards, that just happened naturally. Some of the notes were heartfelt and quite moving, others were funny, bringing up memories my dad hadn't thought about in years. I especially loved reading what his grandchildren wrote. All in all, a pretty inexpensive gift (postage was our main expense) and one I think my dad will remember for quite some time.

why we love halloween

Friday night JR and I were busy sewing Halloween costumes for the kids. It was late, too late, and we were tired. A few times I looked over at JR as he was taking measurements and cutting fabric, and thought.. Why do we do this to ourselves each year?

I guess it's just become part of the tradition of Halloween in our family. Some people go all out with lawn decorations. Some people bake delicious pumpkin treats all October long. But for our family, we make our costumes. We try to use things we have already, or will use again after Halloween. And we try to keep the sewing (and cost) to a minimum. We think a clever costume is better than an elaborate one. And we try to convince the kids to be something unique (though we often fail).

There's just something great about homemade costumes. I like rummaging through our drawers and seeing what we can come up with. I love that the kids get to pick what they want to be and mom and dad make it happen. I know they won't always want to have us make their costumes, so we are enjoying it while we can. And when I look back at pictures from Halloweens past, I remember why we stay up late sewing and glueing and tinkering. Is it worth it? Oh yes, and then some.

the bowling trophy

JR's family lives far away from us, so we only get together once every year or so. And when we do... we bowl. No one is very good at bowling, but bowling is an easy-to-organize, not-too-expensive activity that most everyone enjoys. kids and adults alike. We take over a few lanes, usually in the morning mid-week when the place is empty. You jump up to bowl when it's your turn, but the rest of the time is spent talking and helping the kids knock down some pins.

There are great bowling alleys in small towns everywhere. I especially like the old school ones that haven't been touched since the 1970's. Orange and white booths. Color blocked leather shoes. League scores for the past 20 years posted on the walls. A few old arcade games in the corner. (The photos below were taken at one of my favorite places to bowl: Holiday Lanes in Heber, Utah.)

About 10 years back when JR and I were first married, we stopped by a trophy shop and made a Reynolds Family Bowling Trophy. I think it cost us about $10. The trophy is awarded to the person with the highest score, and the lucky winner gets to proudly display their trophy all year long until we bowl again. No one will admit that they actually want the bowling trophy, but I think it makes the game a little more exciting. Uncle Troy was the winner this year when we played in Oregon, but we think we can take him down the next time we play.

baseball gender reveal

My dear friend (who also happens to be my sister-in-law.. that's the great thing about your brother marrying one of your high school pals) is pregnant! Hooray! We had almost all our family together for a family reunion this summer the day she found out the gender of the baby. I LOVE how she decided to let everyone know her big news.

We were all going to an Angels baseball game that night, so she and my brother didn't tell anyone the sex (not even their other children). We all kept asking "Boy or girl? Boy or girl?" "Just tell us already!!". She told us she would let us know what she was having by getting some cotton candy at the Angels game. BLUE cotton candy for a boy, and PINK for a girl. 

Every time the cotton candy guy walked by with his cotton candy, we all held our breath. All game long we kept asking "Are you ready for some cotton candy?". It was more exciting than the baseball game! Then finally in the 6th inning or so, my brother disappeared for a bit and came back with some PINK cotton candy for his wife (all the cotton candy guys kept coming around our section with only blue!).

It was so fun to all find out together (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters) and I loved seeing my nieces and nephews faces as they learned the news. Hooray for families and for creative gender reveals!