Saying Farewell to 2017 (See You in 2018!)

We are so close to the end of the year, my friends! 

I do feel like I've made the most of this year. I am so grateful for all that I have, and I want to savor every last bit of it. 

I'm still brainstorming what I hope to manifest in 2018. I started writing a lot of different things on one single page: savor, being rather than doing, family goals, slow to say yes and fast to say no, sustain, friends/connection, ukulele, tennis, Saturday Suppers, starting an Austin chapter of Navigators, 40th birthday party, podcast, a weekend away with Matt, getting our will done, therapy, beautiful office. 

Then I started circling the things that stood out to me.

Then I remembered something I've been working on this year professionally--before I commit to taking on new things, I make a list of all the things I want to sustain because the energy/capacity we have to take on new things is connected to what we are trying to sustain. 

I want to sustain:

• Leadership coaching
• Vacations: Spring, Summer, Fall
• Two runs per week outside
• Stopping work at 8pm so I have free time
• Tracking expenses in Mint.com
• Family Goals
• Saturday Suppers
• Adequate sleep
• Meditation/gratitude
• Date night

That's so much already! Do I really want to take on anything new? 

So I went through my favorite exercise: asking myself what I need on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis to feel fulfilled. 

Daily:

• A home cooked meal with my family around our table
• Adequate sleep
• Meaningful work that makes the world a more just, equitable, and peaceful place
• Time to connect with Matt
• A breakfast smoothie
• A healthy lunch
• Self-directed time
• An organized living space

Weekly:

• Exercise
• Time to talk to my mom
• Time to text/talk with family/friends
• Blogging
• Self-time in the house alone
• Time to prepare for the week

Monthly:

• Pedicure
• Cheap massage
• Saturday Supper
• Navigators meeting
• A cool adventure
• Crafting
• Date night with Matt
• Time to reflect on progress toward my yearly goals
• Therapy

Yearly:

• Vacations
• Birthday celebrations
• A trip by myself
• A trip with just Matt alone
• Family rituals

So what's starting to emerge for me is this idea of Sustain & Strengthen or Sustain & Deepen. I'm already doing so many things I want to do and living the life I want to live. I just need to sustain what I'm doing. 

I'm going to think about this more over the rest of the holiday season and into the new year. 

I'm wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season and a rejuvenating new year! See you on the other side!

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Family Goals

A new year is almost upon us! 

My wheels are turning about our family goals. I made my family brainstorm some ideas with me when we were held hostage in our car for a 20-hour trip back from Florida for Thanksgiving. 

Our template holds 9 goals, so that's my target (#lazygirl).

Here's what we have on the list so far:

1. Save up money for a hot tub (um, after we eradicate our credit card debt). 
2. Start an Austin chapter of Navigators. 
3. Go on at least four day road trips.
4. Host at least 10 Saturday Suppers. 
5. Visit at least 12 Austin parks.
6. Go on at least 5 hikes. 
7. Go mountain biking as a family at least once. 
8. Plan tennis at least 6 times. 
9. Volunteer as a family at least 3 times. 
10. Plant 100 trees. 
11. Learn to pay the ukulele.
12. Go on at least 3 awesome vacations. 

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Cultivating Entrepreneurs for Change

Henry and I had such a fun experience preparing for and participating in the Magnolia Makers Market!

I'm conscious of helicopter-parenting and over-parenting, so I tried to let him lead the process as much as possible (which is hard for me because I am naturally controlling and perfectionistic!). 

The main thing I did was collect kids craft ideas in Pinterest. Then I let him browse that page to pick out what he wanted to do. He selected painted wooden keychains. 

He then made a list of everything we would need to get for the project (including all the math associated with doubling things and figuring out how many we would need to make 100), and I drove him to Hobby Lobby to pick out his supplies. There was a lot more math involved with figuring out how many packs of each things we would need and comparing prices based on the cost of individual units. 

We wanted to keep the cost as low as possible to maximize Henry's profits, so we pulled up Amazon while we were shopping and did decide to order some of our items from there. 

Once everything arrived, we got started. Henry agreed he would pay me $5 for my help, in addition to repaying me for all the supplies I bought.

We strung the wooden beads on pipe cleaners and used sponge brushes to paint them. We hooked the pipe cleaners on a hanger so we could hang them to dry. 

Henry was able to do every step of the process independently: he could use the ruler to cut the suede to the right size. He could tie the suede onto the key ring. He could string all the beads and tie the suede at the end. 

We took turns checking each other's work, "Did I miss a spot on my painting?" He would honestly find spots that I missed, just as I would find spots that he missed.

It quickly became clear that we wouldn't have the stamina to complete 100 key chains, so we started working on them in batches. We would paint 10 beads and then make 10 key chains. I didn't want us to get the end and have all the beads painted but no key chains finalized. 

In the end, we made 50 key chains. Early on, we figured out how many key chains Henry would have to sell at $3 each in order to pay me back (i.e., 16). Once we got past 16, he was very motivated to make more and more. 

Henry then drafted his sign on paper, and then transferred his final draft to a posterboard. We walked around the house and brainstormed how to decorate the table. 

On our final night, Henry made a list of key chain prices for himself (1 = $3, 2 = $6, 3 = $9, etc.) and we practiced making change and saying, "Thank you! Have a great day!" We also practiced what to say if someone said, "Keep the change." ("Are you sure?" Thank you so much!). 

Henry also decided which non-profit he wanted to donate a portion of his proceeds to. He already knew that he wanted it to relate to elephants, so we did some internet research and landed on the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. 

The day of the sale, Henry helped load everything into the car, and helped set up his booth at the event. He sat at his booth for nearly 3 hours straight! Early on, he said, "I want to do this again next year!" I said, "Awesome! But I'll ask you again at the end of the day to see if your answer is the same." And fortunately it was. 

It was so inspiring to be around so many creative, crafty, and caring children! I definitely look forward to doing it again next year.

The key it all was having enough time for the process. We worked on this for about a month, which meant that we could slow everything down to Henry's pace. There were times when he only wanted to paint for five minutes, which meant that we had to put everything away and wash all the paint (which then led to a big mess and then led to a long clean-up process). But it was what it was. We finally got into a rhythm of working at night after Tate had gone to bed. Henry said, "It's a lot easier to work and stay focused when Tate's not distracting me by playing!"

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Design Advice Needed!

I'm about to have an office for the first time in my entire life! It's going to be a major upgrade. I'm currently sharing one open room with seven other people (and frequently at least one sick child on our little sick bed). Plus my chair bumps into the back of another person. It's a tight squeeze!

I want to make the very best use of the space. I always try to start with function. How do I want to use the space? 

1. My desk, obviously. I think I want it facing out into the room so I can see the rest of the office and don't feel so isolated. This will be a change for me. My desks almost always push up against a wall. I should be open to pushing it up against a wall, though. That would create a lot more space!
2. Plants, plants, plants. But how? On little shelves attached to the wall? From ceiling planters? In big pots on the floor? All of the above? 
3. Books, books, books. I have so many educational books. 

Wait, what if I don't have a desk at all? What if I have a dining room table instead? I could easily work there with my lap top. Then, others could come in for meetings and join me at the table! Do I really need a desk? It seems like desks just collect stuff unnecessarily. Am I missing something? I do want to be able to easily reach things like paperclips, pens, stapler, tape, and post it notes. But it feels like I could put those things close by to my table somehow. Oh, I guess I will also have my own phone for the first time. 

If I went with the table instead of a desk idea, I could then have a chaise lounge for when I need to do comfy work (e.g., I frequently have to design curriculum for hours at a time). It's an interesting idea! 

I can barely find any resources about this. I found one article. I can't find any books on it. Isn't there some kind of workplace planner? Some kind of questionnaires? Recommendations?

Okay, I am stressing about this way too much. I just want to make the most of this opportunity! 

(P.S. In case you are wondering, I will be paying for the bulk of this stuff on my own--by saving up my personal allowance. I will only have a modest furniture allowance from the school.)

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Credit Card Debt

Oy. Matt and I have quite a bit of credit card debt at the moment. It's been a year of spending beyond our means: first it was expensive doctors appointments (not covered by insurance) related to Henry and Tate's genetic issues with not processing folic acid. Then it was deciding to plan a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia. Then it was deciding that we had to replace the temporary wood railings that were crumbling on our front and back decks (we had had them for four years) and deciding that we should install a shade sail at the same time in order to make our back deck more usable. And then our pool pump broke. 

It's time to get back on track. At the end of October, I got our budget ready for next year. We planned to resume tracking our expenses on Mint.com throughout November, but I forgot to reset the budgets (certain budgets accumulate from month-to-month), so it wasn't a tremendously helpful process. 

But now we are all set to start tracking religiously in December. It's crazy to me how much willpower it takes to track daily expenses, even though Mint.com makes it so easy! 

Anyway, thanks for bearing with me as I publicly recommit to getting back on track with our budget! We have to pay property taxes in January (we don't escrow them throughout the year), so it might be a while before we get out of debt. The faster we can hunker down, the faster we will get out of debt! 

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A One Gift Christmas

Shhh...please don't tell my children that a lot of people get a lot of presents for Christmas. We're trying the pick-your-very-favorite-thing-and-you-can-have-it strategy. 

For months leading up the Christmas, when the boys ask for things, we say, "Let's add it to your Christmas list!" As it gets closer, we ask them to settle on their very top gift. And then we get it for them. 

I'd like to think it's really cool to be able to name your favorite thing and guarantee that you could have it? I honestly have no idea. We're just trying our best as parents! 

This year, Henry wants a pocket knife so he can whittle. We are bundling it with this wood and this book. Tate wants a remote-controlled boat. 

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Holiday Gift Idea: Magnets

Are you still looking for holiday gift ideas? 

This year we used Social Print Studio to make refrigerator magnets for our family using family pictures that Matt took. We ordered the smaller ones and were happy with how they turned out. I highly recommend them!

(If you are looking for a less expensive, DIY version, I've also made magnets like this before and liked the results...)

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How to Celebrate My 40th?

40!?!

It's on the horizon!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I got to be with my cousin while she celebrated her 30th birthday. It got me thinking about how I used to celebrate birthdays with a lot more creativity and zest. For my 30th birthday, for example, I invited my good friends to trek to a camp in the mountains of Colorado. We went snow-shoeing, cooked meals together, watched a movie, played board games and just had a lot of cozy fun together.

It made me sad to think that I was about to let my 40th birthday pass without much ado. It's not that I need the attention or need to put myself at the center of some narcissistic celebration. Instead, it's about seizing the opportunity to bring people together (with a socially-sanctioned excuse).

I've talked a lot about my "former self" and how she has "slipped away" in many ways. It's been a combination of things, mainly deciding to raise two children who are two years and four months apart, as well as giving birth to a giant career all at the same time. They say that entrepreneurs can only choose three of these things: family, career, fitness, sleep, or friends. And that list doesn't even include things like personal expression (through creative outlets) or service to others or emotional growth. Oh my!

But I am slowly reclaiming a more well-rounded version of myself, mainly by making myself stop work by 8pm every night and by radically prioritizing what our organization commits to taking on.

It's a process that started this year, and I'm beginning to feel the effects.

So, back to the birthday story.

On the 20-hour road trip back to Austin, I started brainstorming birthday ideas. My ideas mainly involved my going somewhere along, like to Camp Good Life Project or to a crafting camp.

Then Matt had the idea that we rent inexpensive cabins in a forest and invite our friends with families to get together for a weekend. Yes! That's exactly right. It's like recreating my 30th birthday but with all of our children in tow. I'm calling it Family Fun Fest (to Celebrate my Fortieth). Can you tell that I love alliteration?

It's going to have things like campfires and sing-a-longs (did I tell you I'm going to start learning the ukulele?), board games, a movie night, communal meals, hiking, kitchy camp crafts, outdoor games like flag football and frisbee, creek exploration, and a Family Field Day (I love some cheesy competition). Yes! It sounds so fun (to me). I'm going to put together the invitation and see if I can get some friends to commit to coming!

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'Tis the Season: Our Holiday Traditions as a Family

The holiday season seriously seems to fly by. Halloween, Matt's Birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas--BAM!

I'm trying to slow down and savor it as much as possible. I've worked to reduce the stress by staying ahead of everything I want to do: we start Halloween costumes in August or September, then we move on to getting our Christmas shopping started and holiday cards done. 

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone (we had a fantastic week at the beach visiting my family in Florida), we are rolling out the Christmas traditions. Here's what we do as a family:

1. We travel out to Elgin Christmas Tree Farm (with our dog) to take a hay ride out to the fields. We jump off, grab a saw, and run around (not the person holding the saw) until we can reach consensus about which tree we want to cut down and bring home. 
2. Next we decorate the tree with ornaments that we've collected over the years, including from every vacation. We label them with the year, so we can keep everything straight in our memories. 
3. Then we hang up our version of an advent calendar and use it all month, which includes different ways to celebrate the season together as a family, with things like going ice-skating, writing notes of gratitude, making gingerbread houses, baking treats for the neighbors, making and delivering meals for homeless people, dancing to Christmas music, spray painting branches for decoration, etc. I simple order all the supplies we need at one time and then we are good to go all month! 
4. We also break out our Christmas books to read each evening. 

These experiences are getting more and more fun as our children get older! I'm imagining there's a sweet spot from about 6-10 years-old where our children will optimally enjoy these things before they turn into angsty adolescents. I'm trying to enjoy it while we have it! 

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DIY Zippered Pouches (and Thoughts on Being Instead of Doing)

This year I decided to make presents for my closest colleagues. I used to be that kind of person, but motherhood kind of erased it from my muscle memory. 

I had to make 11 in all, so I wanted something that was manageable. 

I decided on this zippered pouch. I find that "Batch Processing" helps a lot. I cut all the fabric at the same time, ironed everything at the same time, sewed on all the zippers, etc. The process of only focusing on one thing at a time makes the process more efficient. 

In retrospect, I should not take on a project like this in October/November. It's a time of year that gets too busy. I'm doing a good job of staying ahead of things (like holiday cards--which are ready to mail after Thanksgiving!), but there are too many things on my to-do list, and it's pushing me into "to do" mode instead of allowing me to be a person who can just be.  

I recently teared up while watching this video, entitled, If I Were a Young Woman Now...

It's about modern womanhood and the pressures we put on ourselves to be the perfect mother, the perfect friend. I think a lot about how I'm part of that pressure (which comes so heavily from the emergence of the blogging community). I also run e-courses about trying to have the best possible pregnancy and how to be the most purposeful parent possible. 

There's such a fine line between trying to intentionally and purposefully live your best life and frittering it away by overly focusing on all the wrong things. 

These kinds of lines really stuck out to me: 

If I had my time again, I wouldn't create a to do list. I'd create a "to don't do" list...If I were a young woman now, I'd spend less time doing and more time being. 

The truth is, I do want to be the kind of person who makes handmade gifts for friends but not because I feel pressure to be the perfect friend. I want to do it because making things with my hands feels good to me and gives me a deep sense of accomplishment. It's meditative to cut and iron and sew. I want my boys to see me start with a small nugget of an idea, research how to make it happen, work hard, make mistakes, demonstrate resilience, and feel successful in the end. It's a great way to spend long, Sunday afternoons while the boys just want to play creatively around the house. 

So next time I'll start earlier in the year. And not in any pressure-kind-of-way. No, I'll just start making handmade gifts and collecting them so that I can use them at the right moment. 

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Magnolia Makers Market

Our school is organizing a makers market this year. I'm so excited! Our young Entrepreneurs for Change will donate a portion of their profits to the non-profit organization of their choice. 

Henry is making keychains. It's been a fun lesson in micro-loans, comparing the prices of materials in order to find the most inexpensive options, planning our your time, etc.

If you're in Austin, you should stop by and see us! You can get your free tickets below...

Powered by Eventbrite

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Family Goals: Update

Yikes! 

The new year is almost upon us. It has caused me to go back to our Family Goals to see if we are on track. We have volunteered more than twice, read more than three chapter books, gone on more than three vacations, saved money for new deck railings (but not a hot tub), hosted 10 events at our home, and hung out at a creek in the summer. 

I realized we only went to one instead of two performances, so I quickly found a random aerial performance in East Austin. It looks quirky and has definitely piqued my interest! 

We also never went camping. So camping it is! We are so unprepared for camping. We don't even have a cooler. But we are going camping! 

I've started a project plan because that always helps to calm me down. 

It's weird. I have camped a lot in my life, but there's something about family camping that gives me pause. I think it's the fact that my degree of responsibility has gone up so much. I used to just have to worry about myself.

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Living Our Best Life

This year my intention was to get to the end of the year and be able to say:

I feel:

• Balanced
• Connected
• Full of vitality
• and at peace.

I want to keep my bucket full so I can interact with others from a place of PATIENCE + LOVE + JOY. 

In retrospect, that was quite ambitious! 

I feel like I have made progress on the "balanced" component. I've worked really hard to bring more balance between my professional and my personal life. I've gotten to a place where I can stop working at 8pm nearly every night. 

I also feel like I have made progress on the Vitality front. I have been regularly running two times per week (for the whole year!). I have also been eating in a more healthy way and taking supplements that match up to my needs. 

I feel like I haven't done as much toward the connection and the joyful piece, but I'm not going to be too hard on myself, considering the fact that the goal was already ambitious. 

Now that the new year will be upon us soon, I'm back to thinking about what my focus will be for the new year. 

A lot of different things come to mind. One is "Savor." 

Another is that I want to focus on my emotional development. I feel like for several years I have been so focused on "doing" that I have lost sight of "being" the very best person that I can be. 

Another thing that comes to mind is "Sustain" as I work to consolidate everything I've put in place: home, marriage, family, career. 

Another thing blaring in my mind is: Fast to say "no"; slow to say "yes." 

I'm glad I still have another two months to officially kick off 2018. It will be good to have time to think about this stuff.

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Thanksgiving Project Planning

You guys know me: I love planning and I love reducing stress whenever possible. Enter the Thanksgiving Project Plan. 

My aunt and I started brainstorming what our meals are going to be for the week we are all together. We are going to have different family members sign up to take on the preparation and the clean-up of each meal. 

We are going to do a fondue night, which I'm really excited about: cheese (with bread), meat, and chocolate (strawberries, pretzels, and rice krispie treats). 

Our project plan has multiple tabs: the schedule with the meals (along with who's responsible for prep and clean-up) + the events for the week; a list of things to bring from home; grocery list; and a detailed breakdown of who is doing what the prep which parts of our bigger meals. 

I recognize that there are folks out there saying, "Thank goodness this woman is not part of my family." Luckily, my family appreciates having a plan! My hope is that it will reduce stress all around (and minimize trips to the grocery store during a stressful time).

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Print Your Own Holiday Cards

Close your eyes if you are expecting a holiday card from me; I don't mean to ruin the surprise! (As a side note, you should e-mail me if you think we are kindred spirits and we should start exchanging holiday cards. Anna and I started doing that and became friends in real life after we took a road trip to Oklahoma to meet her family!). 

I wanted to share a breakdown of how we did our cards this year and how much it cost:

• $20 design fee from this awesome Etsy artist
• $81.08 for printing 200 cards from gotprint.com (full Color front and back; SIZE: 5" x 7"; 16 pt. Dull Cover with Matte Finish)
• Envelopes = $39.80

Total cost per card = $0.70

I did a quick search on Minted.com and it looks like something comparable would have cost about $1.67 per card. Phew! I'm glad our cost ended up cheaper (since I didn't do the calculations in advance...)

Let me know if you have any questions! 

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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New Meal Planning Website

Have you all seen this new meal planning website yet? I got a free subscription because I work in education, and I love it! It lets me specify what kind of restrictions and preferences we have (not only related to ingredients but also about how much we want to spend and how long we want the meals to take). And then you can order the ingredients via Instacart, if you want (which you know I already love).

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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What is the right amount of activities for children?

It's a complicated question with a lot of different answers!

For me, I think I want to start with the end vision first. In our "Family Manifesto," Matt and I said things like:

• "We are family that maintains a daily pace of life the allows us time to laugh together, express our love and appreciation for each other, and enjoy each other's company"
• "We are a family that patiently supports and celebrates each other as we pursue our passions and individual interests." 

So to me that implies that we should absolutely be introducing our boys to new activities but not in a way that stresses us out or consumes our lives. It seems to easy to fill up our calendar too quickly and then to leave our family feeling stressed and/or rushed. The ideas in Simplicity Parenting really resonated with me (in fact, I need to read it again!)! I don't want to fall into the American trap of "more equals better."

The first activity we started was Aikido. Henry's teacher recommended it for him because of his issues with self-regulation. We kept him in it for about a year, but he ultimately didn't like it very much. We wanted to put him in a different activity where he could continue to practice listening to directions and following instructions, so we picked formal swimming stroke instruction. We now do this on Saturdays from 8:00am-8:30am for Tate and 8:30am-9:00am for Henry. This time works pretty well for us because it still leaves the whole day open. 

Now we have an opportunity to sign him up for ukulele lessons with one of his former teachers. It would be awesome to have her back in his life (he was SO connected to her). I'm wondering if she would let me join in the lessons, too! I would love to learn alongside Henry. Matt and I aren't very musical, so I want to make sure our children get exposed to it, despite our lack of experience/expertise.

But I want to continue to be really thoughtful and intentional about what we sign ourselves up for.

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Family Adventure: Traveling Internationally with Kids

Our next big adventure is to Australia! We'll be going during Winter Break (which will be smack dab in the middle of summer there, which I'm excited about because I am way more a warm weather person than a cold weather one). We'll be heading to an old coffee plantation that has been renovated into a home in the hinterlands of Byron Bay. Then we'll be heading down to Brisbane. 

We are all so incredibly excited! 

I purchased some books to help us prepare for our adventure. 

• Australia and Oceana
• If You Were Me and Lived in Australia
• This Is Australia
• Australia ABCs
• Over in Australia
• National Geographic Readers: Koalas
• Australia Rookie Reader
• Living in...Australia

As we read through them, we are going to make a list of everything we want to see there (kind of like a scavenger hunt that we can check off as we go). 

I've been trying to keep an ongoing list to double-check when we are packing. I'll have to modify it a bit for our first international trip with the boys! 

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Budget Preparation

Phew! I finished getting our budget ready for 2018. Here's my process:

1. Look at our previous year's budget in Google sheets. (I have one column that specifies what the category is called in Mint.com, what the item is, how much it costs per month, and notes about how I arrived at that cost per month). 
2. Cross check each line item by looking at the past several credit card statements. I need to make sure we are actually spending what we say we are spending. 
3. Pepper Matt with questions about new charges that have been added to the budget over the year (like donations to the ACLU). 
4. Update our income in the same budget document. 
5. Make adjustments to our budget so that the total expenses (including money that goes into specific savings accounts) equals our total income. I budget for every single dollar that comes in. 
6. Use Mint.com to set a budget for each item and each savings goal. This part is tedious if I'm committed to getting it 100% right. This year, I had to print out our budget and manually cross off each item as I checked it on Mint. 

It feels good to have this ready for the 2018 year. We did not do a good job of tracking our expenses this year, but maybe 2018 will be our year! (I don't mean to sound so noncommittal; I'm just trying to set lower expectations so I can exceed them.)

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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Traveling with Kids: San Francisco

One of the things that makes me anxious (there are many!) is thinking about how quickly my children are going to grow up. I'm friends with many of my former students and/or their families on Facebook, so I have watched children go from 3rd grade to high school in the blink of an eye. 

When Matt and I are falling asleep together and trying to talk about things that don't induce anxiety (no Trump talk!), I'll ask him questions like, "What can we do to make sure we truly savor this time with our children?" 

One of our answers is family vacations. During our most recent Fall Break, I had to participate on an education panel in San Francisco, so we turned it into a family trip. 

Oh, how we love California! 

Here's how we spent our days:

Day One (Sunday): 

We always try to give ourselves at least one normal weekend day before going on a trip so we can get everything done without feeling stressed. On Sunday we woke up at our normal time and headed to the airport. (As I've mentioned before, we are now traveling with these booster seats, which makes traveling a lot easier.)

One we arrived, we headed straight to Oakland to reconnect with friends. Our first stop was to visit some friends (who also happen to be awesome musical artists). We walked from their apartment to an Ethiopian restaurant. So fun to be in such a walkable city! (When my memory wants to cling to all the positive parts, I will start to forget that Tate was totally stressful in the restaurant. Gotta love 4 year-olds!)

Then we headed to Berkeley to reconnect with another set of friends at Adventure Playground. So much fun! 

Then it was on to Stinson Beach where we stayed in a small cottage near the beach through AirBnB. 

That was the night the wildfires started. There was such intense wind, and we would smell the burning of trees. We didn't learn what was happening until the morning. 

Day Two (Monday): 

We drove down the hill into town for breakfast and to hang out at the beach. The boys are such beach creatures, even when the water is downright frigid. 

We then drove into Mill Valley (which I think is one of the most beautiful towns in America--except that it isn't very diverse) for lunch and a quick stop at one of the most beautiful playgrounds in America (which is nestled in some redwoods). Henry was thinking about the song "This Land is Your Land" and kept asking, "Is this the Redwood Forest?")

Then it was back to Stinson Beach to meet up with some friends from the city. We hung out on the beach and then headed to an amazing little restaurant right on the beach.

Day Three (Tuesday): 

Matt went for a long run, so I took the boys down to breakfast alone. Even though we sat at a large booth, they both cozied right up next to me. It's an adorable memory I'm going to hold close to me (and let it overshadow those other memories of my children being pull-your-hair-out frustrating!).

We then headed to the beach again. The boys managed to find disregarded beach toys to play with and they occupied themselves for a long time while I read and talked on the phone with my mom. 

That afternoon we headed back into Mill Valley to grab a picnic lunch from Whole Foods, and we ate beneath the redwoods back at our favorite park. 

We then made our way to Palo Alto for my education conference, and we ate at Stanford University in the dining hall. 

Day Four (Wednesday): 

On this day the boys went out for an adventure on their own (visiting a friend who works at the Opera House and connecting with friends at an amazing park in the Bay Area!).

Day Five (Thursday):

Matt went for another long run while the boys and I went back to Stanford University for breakfast in the dining hall. Then we drove back to the city for a touristy trip to Alcatraz (luckily my tendency to plan things in advance was more helpful than annoying and I purchased tickets for us in advance since they sell out so quickly). 

After lunch, we grabbed arepas at Pica Pica and ate them at the Mission Dolores Park. When we travel, I always bring a sheet to use as a picnic blanket and a deck of cards so Matt and I can play gin rummy while the boys play. 

That evening we reconnected with old friends for some Indian food. 

Day Six (Friday): 

We walked with our friends to breakfast and then headed to Pacifica to see their new office/house. We played at the beach again (the boys cannot get enough!), ate at a tiny taqueria, and then Henry requested to see a tide pool. Luckily, we were literally in the middle of low tide according to the internet, so we headed to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve where we were able to see sea anemones and hermit crabs. 

After that, we headed back to the airport for a 5 o'clock flight. 

This was the first trip where Matt and I made a concerted effort to ask ourselves, "Who do we know in the city that we should try to spend time with?" It was so fun to see the city through our friends' eyes, and it was so fun to spend time with good people. With good friends, you can skip right over all the small talk and get straight to the meat of life. My conversations went from talking about how to dismantle white supremacy to how to start your own life coaching business. 

And as our children get older, these trips get more and more fun. We get to spend such concentrated amounts of time together. I love just soaking those boys in (and letting my mind erase all the hard parts)!

For updates in between blog posts, check out Instagram! 

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