There are four weeks of school left. !!!! This time of year is always busy, and with Easter falling on Maeve’s birthday this year it has felt especially so. I feel like I’m getting to catch my breath a bit here and hope to keep some margins to the school year finish line. We’ll see how wishful that thinking might be!

With life swirling around us, I’m thankful for anchors in my week, like my Wednesday Starbucks morning post-Orange Theory. It feels like a deep inhale and I notice that I feel frayed if I miss one.

I’ve got my usual order of a cafe au lait (Starbucks calls it a misto) with oat milk and a stretch of blissfully calm time – let’s catch up!

13 and 6!

Since we chatted last, we have gain a teenager (!!!!). So far parenting a teen…is delightful. Dash is kind, thoughtful, responsible, and an all around incredible human. He’s not taller than me yet but I’m almost certain he will be by his next birthday. For his birthday, Dash got weights (as requested), a new Apple Watch band, and a guitar – a surprise gift from Chris! I love watch my kids discover and pursue their interests.

We still have a lot of teenage-hood to parent through, plus two more to guide through it so I’m not declaring it all calm waters from here. But it’s quite lovely to find parenting a teenager to be so fun and enjoyable, especially when the cultural narrative is mostly warning signs about how hard it will be.

Speaking of teens, next week Erica and I will have an episode out about parenting teens and the following week a bonus book club episode for Friends of the Show all about the book Fourteen Talks Before Age Fourteen. I loved this book so much and want to recommend it to anyone with a tween or teen. Have you read it?

And we also have a six year old! With the most adorable top-bottom tooth gap. For her birthday, Maeve got an electronic drum set after consistently telling us that she wanted to drum for the past few months. She’s taken right to it and picks up beats so well. I give Chris all the credit with bringing instruments and music into our kids’ lives and I’m so thankful!

Besides drumming, Maeve is also into music and singing (and takes singing classes), crafts, fort-building, making up her own dances, swimming (and now swims with the pre-swim team classes), soccer, and Girl Scouts. Monday afternoons with Maeve are still one of my favorite times of the week. We listen to story podcasts, go to the library or run an errand, and go to swim. Then I get to sit and give her thumbs up after each lap and marvel at how far we’ve come. I never thought we’d make it this far in swim because of Maeve’s hesitant nature. I’m so proud of her and love that she’s had the experience of showing up for something that keeps challenging her.

In moods and emotions, we keep seeing her take (small) steps out of having huge meltdowns. There’s still the risk of morning and post-school grumpies but I like where we’re heading. Friends, I’m ready!

Designing Our Summer

One of my favorite planning endeavors every year is designing our summer. And it’s time! Chris and I have a date planned for this weekend and that will likely be a topic of conversation. We’ll be heading to Eau Claire again this summer and I’m so glad to not have the gargantuan task of furnishing the whole house and onboarding to all the platforms to rent it out.

We’ve got a few kid activities planned and I have a long list of fun local stuff that I want us to do. But more to come after Chris and I get into all the details. A big goal of mine is to take off from work as much as possible. I probably won’t teach this summer, Girl Scouts will be on hiatus, and Erica and I are busting our butts to record all our summer episodes ahead of time. Plus I have an aggressive calendar of editing and scheduling. One of my 2026 goals is to give myself more breaks from work and I’m very motivated to give that to myself.

Are you starting to design or dream about your summer?

Bits and Bobs

A few other random thoughts and notes…

+ Last weekend I took Maeve and a friend to the splash pad. When the ice cream truck rolled through I took the girls and also treated myself to a coffee ice cream bar. It was pure joy.

+ I’ve been listing many things on our local Buy Nothing group, including two bins of Duplo blocks. Maeve is playing with Legos now and I was happy to pass these on to two families who will get many more hours of play from them. I’m not usually very nostalgic for things and am happy to see them go when we are done with them. But the Duplos tugged at my heartstrings, and do even now. There was a little black dog from our very first Duplo set that we got for Dash and that dog managed to stay with us all those years. I would find him in random places throughout the house but he was never lost for good. I always found that rather incredible (given we’ve lost plenty of things over the years, including an Airpod and our half-teaspoon — where did they go??). I took a portrait of him before saying goodbye and take comfort knowing he’ll get to play for years to come. I hope he is as loyal to his new family as he was to us. Giving away Duplos felt like a significant milestone of leaving the little kid years.

+ I am very proud of the rainbow bunt cake that I made for Maeve. I risked a Pinterest fail but it turned out great and wasn’t too hard. Would recommend!

+ When Maeve builds a fort, she brings in all the things from the top of her dresser and decorates her fort area, including a snow globe and a framed photo of Maeve as a baby in Chris’s arms. It’s so sweet – even if it makes for extra cleanup.

+ Bluey is my favorite kids show of all time and I’m so thankful that Maeve is growing up with it. The boys were a little too old for it plus we rarely gave them any screen time until they had aged out of Bluey. I’ve teared up and felt touched in so many Bluey episodes. Rain is guaranteed tears for me. I’ve also noticed that when Maeve watches Bluey she’s inspired to do creative things, like build a fort or she is suddenly coloring and cutting and creating her own masks. I love that Maeve and I will both have fond memories of Bluey.

+ I’ve been taking an adult hip hop class for the past five weeks and I love it so much. I am not good. But I love the movement and music and just having fun. I tell myself that it’s good to be a beginner and that I’m just learning a new language and speaking with a (heavy) accent.

+ The guys (Chris, Dash, and Cedric) did an overnight staycation last weekend with one goal: start in a new Minecraft world and beat it in 24 hours. They texted me triumphantly the next morning and Chris reports that it was one of his favorite experiences with the boys because of how they had to work together and were all having so much fun. I’m still not a Minecrafter although everyone else in the family is, and I’ve come to feel very fond of that blocky game.

How is your April, friends? I hope you are finding small joys and tiny wins!