Every year for the past few years we've hosted a family Halloween gathering at our house. My kids love to decorate for Halloween, and I love the chance to host a holiday party--especially a party that involves cooking up ghoulish looking cookies and other Halloween-themed food. I was so prepared this year--in advance, for once. Weeks ago I bought the party plates and tablecloth, and I've been collecting recipes and party ideas, and browsing Halloween sites for what seems like forever.

It doesn't look like it's going to happen this year. Thanks, H1N1. [more]

We had all kinds of busy and exciting things planned for the weekend: there was the vegetarian potluck on Saturday, and pumpkin carving, and an outing with friends, and we'd talked about a hike in the woods on Sunday, to celebrate the return of crisp, fall weather. But on Saturday morning, in the wee hours of the morning, T. woke me up by crawling into bed next to me and uttering the ominous words, "I don't feel very good." Then she settled her hot little body around mine and I lay awake, feeling an almost audible toll of some warning bell somewhere: fever, oh no! [more]

We spent the long Labor Day weekend in Maryland, visiting my family, celebrating my 40th birthday, and roaming through Ikea. I took T. [more]

We've been back from vacation for two days now, and I realized on Saturday that the urge to share bad vacation stories is not unlike the need to share birth stories--particularly birth stories that involve squirm-in-your-seat gruesome details. Even though I had sworn nine years ago I wouldn't be one of those new mothers who went on and on in intimate detail about their labor and birth experience, only days after L.'s birth I found myself to be exactly that kind of woman. [more]

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. When we moved to Columbus 2+ years ago, I realized I must have moved to the right area of the city because our neighborhood has a huge Fourth of July parade and celebrates the holiday big. [more]