Speed Bump

I finished the book Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time by Brigid Schulte two weeks ago. I’ve been churning over the many ideas and thoughts I had while reading the book and trying to figure out what to write, where to focus. There is so much to the book that resonates, I don’t know where to begin: …People like me tend to get confused over which demand is more pressing in the moment, so we don’t have clear focus on what to do. We can’t decide. So we end up doing both work and home activities in an ambivalent, halfhearted way, which produces mediocre outcomes and vague disappointment in both. Sometimes the sheer agony of leaving the warm baby or the weeping toddler and walking out the door in the morning to go to an unforgiving workplace was enough to sap my strength for the rest of the day. The minute I cross the threshold into the office, the chatter would start in my head: “You left your children. You’d better do something extraordinary to make up ...

Can the 4th of July really be here and gone already?  The July 4th holiday always feels like the mid-point of summer to me. Time is going too fast! Roxie is a 4th of July baby and we celebrated her birthday with a special pink dog treat and a trip to the dog park for a swim on a hot morning. Roxie is now 12 years old, an old dog by any measure. I told Charlie and Izzy the other day that Roxie was my first baby. They thought that was funny. My life with just Roxie 12 years ago was so very different from what it is now. When I brought Roxie home at 8 weeks old, I had just returned from living in Italy and was settling into a new job in a new city where I knew no one. We navigated St. Louis and then Kansas City together before we expanded our world and made room for our lovely little family. I think we've done pretty well for ourselves.  I've heard it said that parenting is a marathon, not a sprint. In marathon running, you have to be physically prepared, but true succ...

Izzy has always been a good climber. She has strong arms and good balance. I've seen her climb a playground rock wall with ease and her teachers tell me she can go all the way across these monkey bars at school by herself. I'm pretty impressed at how she gets herself onto these bars, hangs there, and then pulls her legs up. Nice skills! Note: it was water day on the playground so she was in her swimsuit. She is in need of a new one, I'm reminded as I see these photos from school. This one is a couple sizes too small! I started teaching both kids how to hang from their knees at the playground. With help, they can both do a forward flip around the bar and a penny drop - sis, remember those from gymnastics? Good times.

It’s been 2 months since I discovered Juice (with a capital J) and it’s time I write about it here. I am in love with juice, completely and totally hooked. Here’s why. I discovered the idea of juicing when Ryan and I watched the movie Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. The documentary follows the story of one overweight and disease-plagued Australian in his quest to lose weight and get healthy once and for all. He travels around the United States for two months and talks with people about what they eat and why. During this time he goes on a juice fast, drinking only green juice for the entire 60 days. He loses a lot of weight, his health is drastically improved and he is a changed man. The most incredible story in the movie is actually about a truck driver he meets along the way and inspires to change his entire life. Drinking only green juice for months on end is drastic and not recommended without doctor supervision, but what I like about this approach was that it included real...