A Year of Firsts

Rediscovering magic in the everyday.

mental health

  • Summer Check In: 8 months

    If getting through January is like watching concrete dry, then August is like pouring honey into a cup of tea; it’s golden and sticky and sweet, and while it looks slow and lazy, it disappears way too fast.  I can’t believe school is starting here in just a few days (I know it’s already started Read more

  • “The Point” of K-Pop Demon Hunters

    If you don’t have young kids who watch TV in your life, then it’s possible that you haven’t heard of K-Pop Demon Hunters this summer. However, if you do have a child in middle school or below, and they watch Netflix, chances are this funny little movie has provided your summer soundtrack.  The movie came Read more

  • Death on Vacation

    It’s been challenging to write weekly over the summer. Partially because my daughter is home with me everyday and alone time is more scarce, and also because my brain is constantly boiling and after using it for the non-optional tasks, there is not much left. And yes, I do have AC, but somehow while that Read more

  • Big Spring Project

    Of all my firsts, my big clothing drive was the biggest, and I just finished it. It was a massive commitment. I started collecting in May, and finally delivered the goods on June 21. This all started because I thought it would be fun to host a book swap with some friends, get some free Read more

  • Knots

    I remember my dad packing a bunch of something in the back of a truck with me. I don’t know if it was one of the many times I moved, or a vacation, or some other occasion where I was moving a bunch of stuff from point A to point B. He would remind me Read more

  • Evolution of Grief

    This week has been a hard one. I saw this picture of the evolution of grief. It’s just meme psychology, of course, oversimplifying something really complicated. But the idea I liked was this: grief never really goes away, but we build our lives around it and learn to live with it. In this book on Read more

  • Such a friendly person

    The other day, I was grabbing a coffee with a mom friend of mine. I got into a conversation with the woman behind the counter about eyewear: contacts versus glasses, bifocals, the cost of all this, etc. The barista had a lot to say, and she had a method she had discovered for stretching her Read more

  • Collecting a Pile of Stuff

    I have meandered back and forth from my original intention here – which was to document the new things I do this year.  One thing I was interested in was planning some kind of event, and doing something fundraiser-y that wasn’t my job. For those who don’t know, I have been a non-profit fundraiser for Read more

  • Spring Check-in: Four months

    In February, I posted a two month check in so I decided to try that again. It was a nice mile marker for me. I used to really love doing my annual review at work. Not necessarily for the accolades, but I always enjoyed the exercise of reviewing my goals, writing down what I had Read more

  • Heavenly Birthday

    This Sunday, during Easter celebrations, my Dad will celebrate his first heavenly birthday, turning 77 on the other side.  Fitting in a lot of ways – he passed on Christmas Eve, the day before the holiday of birth, and his birthday is on Easter, the holiday celebrating death and resurrection. He was a lefty, so Read more