I suspect if we lived in the suburbs we wouldn't get stopped and asked this question nearly every single day of our lives. Maybe we would just be another family with a bunch of kids that lived in that house on the street... but somehow when you live smack dab in the downtown core of... Continue Reading →

"We have to leave in 8 minutes, can you guys put your shoes on and wait out here? I've just found pants and socks for the 4 of you, now it's my turn OK? I'll be quick." You may have just lost 1 of your 8 minutes explaining that, but fear not, you can still... Continue Reading →

"Wake up! It bloomed, and the conservatory opens in 12 minutes!" These are the words that every soundly sleeping husband longs to hear first thing in the morning. There's this flower you see. One of the rarest flowers ever. The corpse flower, named for the putrid stench it emits during the 48 hours that it... Continue Reading →

I used to say, "I'm such a good wife," as I held my husband's shrunken shirt straight from the dryer in my hands... again. I used to say, "I'm such a good mom," laced with sarcasm and followed by an eye roll when my kid would throw a super public fit about having to leave... Continue Reading →

This whole business of having 4 boys within 6.5 years has been one of my wildest adventures yet. We rode up the elevator the other day, the doors swung open at our floor and two kids purposefully fell over backwards out of the doors and started somersaulting down the hallway to our apartment. That would... Continue Reading →

A friend in high-school showed up one morning and said, "Hey, look at my forehead! Do you see it?" He raised his left eyebrow and under the skin I could see a tiny round shape moving. "We were having a BB gun war awhile back and I got shot in the forehead... yup, it's still... Continue Reading →

First off, live in a house with only 2 bedrooms, so there isn't even an option apart from sharing. The top parenting experts recommend giving children choices, which we have done. "Would you like to sleep in your bed? OK great, you'll find it located in the second bedroom." Become familiar with the marketplace aisles... Continue Reading →

We know she loves us, don't worry about that... but sometimes it seems like she's just making up a whole pile of rules to ruin our fun. For instance, we'll be in the middle of a huge independent project and she'll come along, usually shriek, and be like, "You can't use water guns to fill... Continue Reading →

It was the 'Drop off your old stuff that isn't garbage, but needs to head to the thrift store' time of year again. Essentially a huge room gets filled with discarded items from the 296 apartments in our building. We always see the sign in the elevator and anticipate it like a garage sale, but... Continue Reading →

Just as our children follow us everywhere, so do our stories and the little books in which we write them. If our stories were shared on a paper instead of in print there would be fingerprints all over them. Spilled coffee on the edges, raspberry jam in the middle, and tear stains near the bottom.... Continue Reading →