Author: Elizabeth

Wife, mom, dabbling blogger. Trying to balance the never ending laundry and the never ending requests for snacks and snuggles from my little people.
Elizabeth

How to Save Time at the Grocery Store

Keeping House

My five minute trick for preventing forgetting and backtracking at the grocery store, and for keeping cold items as cold as possible.

Almost nothing is more frustrating to me than realizing I have to walk back across the store for one more thing in the grocery aisles, once I’m in the produce department. Especially when I have kids with me, because I know my minutes of pleasantness and cooperation are limited. Over the past five years of being the primary shopper in our household, I’ve developed a grocery list method that mitigates the chances of forgetting something and having to backtrack, that really works. Here it is:…

Elizabeth

Halloween Veggies

Food

(Halloween update AND a quick recipe!)

Last night for Halloween, my kids’ enthusiasm got me into the spirit, so I put on a cat ears headband while taking them trick or treating. I’m pretty sure the last time I dressed up for Halloween was senior year of college, when my roommate was Rapunzel and I was her hair. Halloween’s just not my holiday.

The kids were, in Miryam’s words, “a monster Batman girl” and “the leftover cow” (leftover because we recycled her costume from 2 years ago for Luke).

Also uncharacteristically, I let them stay up late…

Elizabeth

Putting Down Roots

Self-Care

One night last week, I was able to pawn off some of those brownies I made last Monday, in all their calorific glory, on the women in a group I’m in at my church.

Thank goodness for community!

In addition to the brownies, I was able to share some news with these women, and they immediately prayed for me, gave me hugs, and somehow made me feel like I have family right here in Arlington, where I’m physically hundreds of miles from my actual family.

It feels like a fluke to have found community this fast. We’ve been here less than…

Elizabeth

The Chocolatiest Brownies

Food

Sunday this week I didn’t feel well, and Monday I got some bad news. I was sad and therefore moping. Justin suggested that I do something to take my mind off it. I think what he really wanted me to do was call an appliance repairman to fix our top oven, which I had forgotten to do last week. …but I really didn’t feel like making phone calls, so instead I decided to make brownies.

I cited my current patheticness–and the fact that I’d made a berry crisp the night before–as good reasons to skip the “Justin style” brownies…

Elizabeth

Bread

Food

Majorly channeling the domesticity this week, because, after much prompting from Justin, I finally set aside my fear of failure and baked homemade bread—yeast and all, not quick bread—from scratch for the first time.

I texted one of my best friends, who is a fantastic amateur baker, during the first rise that I felt I had no idea what I was doing, but “can’t turn back now!”

It’s scary to try a new thing, especially when that thing requires time-specific steps, and one’s toddler might awake from his nap at any moment, or the dough might…

Elizabeth

Stuck in My Head

Kids

Shout out to all the parents who have your kids’ music stuck in your heads today!

There was a large chunk of time in my life when I had country music playing in my head all day every day. I had an exceptionally rich chapter of my spiritual life in college when I often had psalms—instead of songs—stuck in my head, from so frequently praying Liturgy of the Hours. But these days, I have a less sophisticated background soundtrack. Humpty Dumpty, The Broccoli Song, and unnamed tunes from one of the electronic toys around here…

Elizabeth

Beep Beep Crash

Kids

It’s not terribly often that I “get on the floor and play” with my kids and genuinely have fun doing it for more than a few minutes. I always have a hard time setting aside my mental lists (or…my phone) and fully engaging with them. I’m guilty of half “playing” (being in the same room and commenting on their play) while cleaning up other toys or random items nearby. And sometimes I honestly just get bored with whatever entertains 1 and 3 year olds.

Seriously. How many times can we make and eat Bunchems “cake”?

Anyone relate?

Yesterday evening, though…

Elizabeth

A Little Lit in My Life

Self-Care

I finished reading two seemingly unrelated things within the past few days, both of which have led me to the same conclusion: I deserve time in my days for leisure reading, and it is worth it for me to make time for it.

Justin has been out of town for new job training Mon-Fri the last 3.5 weeks (I can’t wait for you, Saturday!!), which means my sweet kids have had no choice but to make all their demands of ME. As an introvert, I usually look forward to those 30 min after Justin gets home from work…

Elizabeth

Friends of All Colors

Kids

I found myself smiling in contentment—almost in victory—last week at the park. The weather was a lovely 70-something degrees, the evening sunlight was barely filtering through the canopy of shade trees, and my children were playing with new friends they’d just met on the playground. Mine were the only two white kids in the group.

Elizabeth

Do a Project Together

Marriage

When Justin was offered a new job in the Dallas, TX, area at the beginning of the summer, we quickly discovered that housing costs are higher here than where we were living at the time. We didn’t want to increase our mortgage by much, so we started talking about buying a fixer-upper, so that we could pay less upfront for the type of home we wanted, gradually fix it up, and build more equity as we go.

We were immediately met with the well-meaning question from family and others, “Are you sure?” The implied follow-up thoughts were…