Today’s Fraudulently Asked Questions is with M. We’re talking about the Hergenrader’s summer hobby of launching fireballs flying lanterns into the sky. Almost August and no house fires! Fingers crossed we make it through the whole summer with no trips to the ER. At least no trips for burns. FAQ #1: Oh, wow. Is that a...Continue Reading
In Subrubia, the good summer camps and VBSs fill up around Spring Break. This past April our summer calendar was still wide open, and I still hadn’t gotten around to signing the kids up for some activities. Just when it was time to panic, my friend Barb, the director of our old church, called. She...Continue Reading
For fifteen years I’ve been learning what works in our marriage. After fifteen years, here’s what I’m good at: forgetting what works in our marriage. We can learn a lesson the hard way, come to a realization about what gives us the deepest happiness, know for sure what puts the sweetness in our marriage. And...Continue Reading
Conventional wisdom may say it’s location, location, location that sells houses. Parents with young kids will tell you what sells houses: playrooms. Back when we lived in the mildly urban suburbs, the houses were smaller and older. Builders in the ’60s didn’t have time for playrooms. Kids played outside more, or at Grandmas. I don’t...Continue Reading
Blame it on One Direction. Blame it on Pilates. In the past couple months, I’ve realized our family needs to get its groove back. Or find its groove to begin with. We don’t have enough music in our lives. Like most things, this all started when we had kids…. You know the scene in Sound...Continue Reading
Every year we travel to the Midwest to see my family in Kansas and M’s family in Nebraska. The trip is a nice break from Houston’s heat, and a fantastic chance for M and I to share our four rambunctious and inquisitive kids with their grandparents for several days. In the past couple years, it’s felt...Continue Reading
Dear Nate… Last night, when you put your pajamas on all by yourself, we discussed what a big boy you are. I said, “You are growing up so fast!” And you agreed, “I AM, MOMMY!” You have the attention span of a fourteen year old, the vocabulary of an eight-year-old, and the interests of a...Continue Reading
BEFORE: The rusty, dated bathroom lighting and wallpaper My strange relationship with exercise (by this I mean how I went to the gym for two years to work on my computer instead of working out) nicely illustrates how I’m afraid to suffer. I went to the gym’s café every day and watched hundreds of people...Continue Reading
When we bought Best of Times Beach House, it needed a lot of love. It had “good bones” (realtor-speak for “good luck finding the bones under all its scars and cellulite.”). But the ugly scars of bad paint and the cellulite of dated wiring and rusty fixtures didn’t daunt us as much as they probably...Continue Reading
Today’s Fraudulently Asked Questions is with Me, Tina, the Mama, the one wrangling the crazy kids this summer. And that’s exactly what we’re talking about today…summer. And crazy kids. FAQ #1: School’s been out for a month. How is your family filling the time? Tina: First it was swim team, swim team, swim team. Then...Continue Reading
