whole parenting house

14 Ways Your Bathroom Looks Like You Have Kids

April 18, 2017

Dead giveaway. If you crane your neck to look past the baseball cards, unfolded underwear, used tape, and assortment of half-colored workbooks, and those weren’t the signal we have kids, welcome to my bathrooms. We live in a big ole house with lots of bathrooms. Some are rarely used. Some are frequent favorites. But nearly all of them have one of these fifteen characteristics of people-with-kid-bathrooms. 1) hand towel on the ground. It may be clean; it may be dirty. You just don’t know and don’t dare risk using it. It literally could have been anywhere. It’s also slightly damp. 2) garbage can missing. It was loaded with unmentionables and taken out to the kitchen to be tossed with the rest of the garbage . . . last week sometime . . . and hasn’t made it back. So meanwhile, there’s a pile of used q-tips, wet-ones, and hair balls in the corner. 3) toilet paper not on roll. It could be behind the toilet, on the back of the toilet, or set in the shower. But it’s not on the roll. 4) stool near toilet. If you’re an adult, please, do not use the stool. It needs to be wiped down. Just kick it with your foot out of the way so you can make it to the toilet, semi-unscathed. 5) suspicious crusting near toilet paper roll holder. Someone may have tried to wipe himself while waiting for a slow old mama to get the wet wipes to finish off a…

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Snug Places I Love

October 5, 2016

Sometimes all I can see when I look around me are the piles of books, broken coloring crayons, outgrown clothing, everything that needs to be put away. The story of our lives, the real story, the messy parts, weigh on me extra when I’m pregnant. I struggle so hard to get the energy to JUST PUT IT AWAY instead of bemoan the existence of the pile. As I’m recovering from a nasty infection, I found if I didn’t look for the snug spots I love in our house, the ones that maybe aren’t dusted or super tidy, but are so joy filled, I would go insane. I’m finding that arranging little corners makes me happy. Shopping from my friend’s instagram vintage curated account makes me happy, too. Little things, people. Let’s start little. And Mercy, the 20 year old Siamese mix, loves this chair. I stole it from my mom because it’s kinda a glider and will make for easy night rocking with our soon-to-be cosleeper. The ottoman was my grandfather’s and rolls (aka becomes a train for my hooligan children). The lamp was my deceased aunt’s whom I never met (she died when my mom was only 18). The books in the corner are almost ones by my friends! Laura, Ginny, Hallie, Kelly, Colleen, and a few others. It’s a special corner for lots of reasons. I stalked our house to find the little nooks and crannies I love. In the spirit of being more positive and less negative,…

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Home to Me: a little about our home

November 24, 2015

Julie put out the call for interested writers to share about their homes, and I couldn’t resist jumping on board. My journey to our home actually started in our home as it’s the home I grew up in. As a little girl, the fourth of five kids, I remember thinking that I never wanted to live anywhere else, that this was the safest and most beautiful place on earth. As I grew up, that fervor cooled and I enjoyed living in Minneapolis for college, Ann Arbor for law school, and Las Vegas for a federal clerkship. But it came back as my fiancé and I discussed where we would sit for the Bar, and where we wanted to raise our kids. I was pregnant with our first when we bought the house from my parents, and when we moved in, I was largely pregnant with little extra energy to do much nesting or settling in, or making it our own. That process has taken now almost 6 years. Slowly but surely, wallpaper removed here, painting done there, a new light fixture in this room, and this room and this room, a new chair, a few new beds. As a grownup, I still feel the comfort of safety in the house. Despite being old (101!) and large and dark at night, I can still make my way around in the absolute pitch dark, knowing all the creaks in the floorboards and all the funny noises that emanate from the furnace room…

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