Well, we've survived half of the holidays so far with four kids between us who have different parentage on either side (his 2 grown-up kids have different moms, mine have different dads) - plus our 3 different sets of parents. Plus mine celebrate 2 religions. Thanksgivings. Check. Hanukkah. Check. Christmases still to come...

I am so thankful I can hardly bear it. I'm thankful for my beautiful girls who I love more than I ever knew I was capable of. I'm thankful for a family unique and different - full of steps and halfs and ex'es and inlaws and outlaws that just feels like plain ...

I have a full size bed. Which is slightly (and I do mean slightly) larger than a twin bed. For the past couple of years, there have been many mornings when all three of us girls have woken up in my bed together - Joy and I on either edge, and ...

Check this out. This post right here that you are reading? It has two tags. One of them is dating. And one of them is family. You might not be a data geek like me and fully appreciate the DEPTH of that in a venn diagram kind of a way. ...

We just had my ideal, perfect, dream weekend. Well... short of being on vacation, anyway. The weather was gorgeous. Clara's dad hung out and played, and worked on the chicken penthouse aka coop for our baby chicks. The girls played in the sprinkler, and the slip n' slide, and the hose, and the ...

I had a fantastic weekend - the best I can remember in a long time. First of all, we put together Joy's new trampoline. Joy and I tried to put it together by ourselves, but we didn't get very far, and so we called in the calvary. Clara's dad came and ...

I spend my weekends preparing for the coming week. I plan the meals and then drag the girls to the grocery store (I bribe them with the free cookie). While they're napping, I clean the house. I stick them in front of movies while I catch up on dishes and ...

Last night, I started the long process of shredding financial and business documents that are more than 7 years old. I have more than 7 boxes full... and as I was shredding last night, item by item, I was struck by how shockingly different my life is now than it ...

We've had an epic snow season here in Bellingham, and we're still in the midst of it. The temperature hasn't been this cold since the early 1990's... and don't I know it. My car hasn't left the driveway for over a week. The very first day it snowed, a week and ...

I haven't written much over the last few weeks... because I've been dating a special someone for a little over a month now. So that last 22.4 minutes of the day that I used to use for blogging before I collapsed into bed, is now instead being used for phone ...