Life Lately

I made a Dutch baby for breakfast this weekend. Two out of three kids tried bites and then scrambled for cereal instead. (The remaining child added copious amounts of powdered sugar for it to be deemed edible.) We played board games and ate Thai food and watched TV under soft blankets. We played Wordle. The kids went from laughing together to fighting in 3.2 seconds flat. Yesterday we went to the nearby nature center and rejoiced in the warmth of temperatures over 32-degrees. The sun warmed our cheeks and the kids discarded their jackets and we remembered what it was like to enjoy the outdoors when the wind doesn’t take our breath away.

I listened to The Daily this morning and heard a Ukrainian woman talk about how it was spring there, too, how the sun was out and the birds were singing (Did I mention the birds who sang us to the bus stop this morning?) and she just wanted to enjoy spring and her peaceful life. I felt the parallels in my bones, both of us trying to rejoice in the promise of spring but only one of us consumed by the reality of war in our streets. That we’re different only by virtue of birth, nothing more.

I half-laugh at the warning at the beginning of The Daily episode, “This episode contains strong language.” As if there is any other kind of language for war.

After two years of pandemic, after George Floyd, after January 6th, after Afghanistan, you’d think we’d have learned to live with tragedy. It feels impossible, for the umpteenth time in the past however many years, to hold all of these tensions.

I bought iced coffee this morning on my way to pick up my groceries. I might balk at the increase in prices and yet I can still afford to fill my van with food to feed my family and pay a stupid amount of money for drive-through coffee. Driving home in safety is a given.

And I drove home, the sun shining down bright on another warm, hopeful spring-is-coming sort of day. I try to hold the parallels in my brain. I fling prayers that mostly resemble Anne Lamott’s Help, Thanks, Wow at the sky because I don’t know what else to do. Don’t know how else to hold this tension and bear it.

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Thing I’m Doing

I hate when my “thing” is all “throw money at a problem” and yet that’s really all I have the ability to do. NPR has a roundup of resources that are trustworthy and on the ground in Ukraine should you feel so moved and able to donate.

The other thing I’m doing is holding space for the stories. I can stand in one teeny-tiny, baby iota measure of solidarity with Ukraine by listening to their stories. I have again found The Daily to be a good resource for this.

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Around the Internet

• “If you're tempted to post things like: Russia is doing this because Americans use too many pronouns! At least Putin isn't woke! How will the murder of Ukrainian civilians affect gas prices? Stop. Go outside for a walk. Call a loved one. Cuddle a pet. Do anything real and good and tangible while counting your blessings that you will very likely never know the fear and pain of having your country invaded by a warmongering dictator.”

• “It sounds trite. It’s not enough. We do it anyway.”

• Maybe the best thing I’ve ever read.

• What with attending Iowa State University and marrying a guy from Iowa, I consider myself an honorary Iowan. This article about Casey’s gas station is everything.

• My friend Molly (Who happens to be an Iowan—Molly do you love Casey’s?) is going through her old journals on her blog and it is a DELIGHT. Where my other millennial women at who based their entire afternoons around AIM chats?

• I played The Sims again for the first time in over a decade during 2020 as a little pandemic treat and honestly, this article, about The Sims and food, seems like niche content created just for me.

• I adored this essay on marriage and honestly could have written this paragraph: “When Bill sneezes, no matter how far away he is, it’s like a blast from an air horn aimed at your face…Every sneeze is an emergency. I don’t think I’ve ever not said “Jesus Christ” out loud upon hearing one.” Now every time Tyson sneezes I say, “Jesus!” (which is my standard response) followed by a muttered, “Always an emergency.”

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Eating

• This was the recipe I used for the Dutch baby. Maybe your kids will appreciate it more than mine.

• I’m planning to make patty melts this weekend and already looking forward to it. I use this recipe and it is a meaty, cheesy, umami perfection.

• I had a horrible cold last week which left me with a slight sore throat so I started making vanilla malts with my immersion blender. I used roughly 1 cup milk + 4 generous scoops vanilla ice cream + 4-5 Tbsp. malt powder + a teeny dash of vanilla and it was DELICIOUS. Tyson prefers chocolate so I add 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder for him.

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Fun Things

• The kids received this version of Ticket to Ride for Christmas. We fell in love with it so I gave what Caden calls “the parent version” to Tyson for Valentine’s Day. I know we’re late to the game (Pun not intended. Ha!) but everyone is right: it’s the best. Cue all of the expansion packs in our future.

• I already raved about this fleece-lined jumpsuit on Instagram, but here it is again. I promise you need this in your life.

• We hit up both the Mall of America and Great Wolf Lodge last week to celebrate the kids’ birthdays and it felt like one of the most “normal” things we’ve done in a very long time. Looking for more normal in the very near future.

If Parents Wrote the Headlines

I don’t want to brush aside the importance of following along with the actual news. I typically start my day with a glance at the headlines and a podcast or two—but does anyone else feel like their own day could warrant a headline or two? What if parents wrote the headlines? Really, family life covers all the basic news sections and storylines: we’ve got warring factions (aka siblings), drama (miscellaneous tantrums), business (balancing work and childcare), an arts and culture section (dominated by paper and crayons), food and recipes (staring at the pantry at 5 pm), and even romance (on occasion).

Here are some stories that might make the news if parents wrote the headlines:

Missing Mitten Rocks Morning

The mudroom was overturned this morning as a search was conducted for a missing mitten. “It looks blue and black just like the other one, except the thumb is on the other side,” said a boy familiar with the item. After searching through several backpacks, shelves, and the entirety of the floor, it was eventually found in the storage bin, exactly where it was supposed to be. While the children involved made it to the bus on time, their mother was left to deal with the resulting chaos of the mudroom on her own.

Coffee Shortage Leaves Mom in Crisis

A local mom opened her pantry today to discover she was out of coffee beans. “I don’t know how this happened,” she said, sounding close to tears, “I was just at Target yesterday.” Sources close to the family report that it had been her third trip to the popular big box department store chain this week alone. She was seen again this morning at her local Target, where despite purchasing two pounds of coffee beans, she also left the store with an iced coffee with oat milk from the in-store Starbucks.

Brothers: The Worst Ever

Our special 7-year-old correspondent reports that “brothers are the worst ever” after they “ruined” her day by not listening while playing a game and also taking six crayons. This is despite the fact that other reports suggest a bin filled with hundreds of crayons sitting next to her and that the game was made up with ill-defined rules. Despite those facts, our 7-year-old correspondent advises you to use caution when interacting with someone who could, in fact, be a brother.

Read more parental headlines over on Twin Cities Mom Collective!