Friday Recipe Roundup no. 2 (and on a Tuesday!)

Oh look, Week 2 of Friday Recipe Roundup came and went and I didn't post! I promise I have a good excuse...which will, in the short-term, be my excuse for all the things that will surely fall to the wayside between now and June: on very short notice I have started a temporary, full-time gig which is taking priority over, well, everything besides la famille.  Mostly because I haven't worked full-time since I was pregnant with Babygirl, and those muscles are tight, and also because I'm psyched about the gig and I just want to bring it, you know? But...first days being what they are (um, ... [READ MORE]

Friday Recipe Roundup

It's Friday night, and my husband is off to his Fantasy Baseball draft (do you capitalize Fantasy Baseball? le hmmmm).  Anyway, this was fine with me because a) I totally get his need for a virtual escape and b) the kids were exhausted and went to sleep without a fight and c)  I was way jazzed to watch Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Deux...except that d) it's only available for pre-order and my TV picture is all screwed up because, kids + remotes. So instead I am reminded that my dear girlfriend the other day recommended I start doing a Friday Recipe Roundup on Less on the Floor.  She said ... [READ MORE]

Happy Moms Who Hate Clutter

Every December (and yes, I know it's March...bear with me), I get a strange yearning to remodel my apartment completely.  This is obviously very convenient timing for everyone, but especially for my husband, whose company policy dictates a furlough between Christmas and New Year, meaning that the days leading up to Christmas Eve are a mad dash to get things in line at work. Also to reupholster furniture, replace all the kitchen cupboard knobs, and build stuff at home. Have I mentioned that I love him? This year (meaning last year, I guess), I spontaneously decided that we needed to ... [READ MORE]

GIVEAWAY with Sheet Pan Suppers & Workman Publishing

If there is one topic my mom-friends and I can talk about ad nauseum it's what to make for dinner.  And how to find the time: time to shop, time to plan, time to cook.  When the whole family rolls home at 6pm (from work, from after-school care, from soccer practice and swim lessons and tutors and therapy and any of the other slew of things we all do in a day -- I mean, how do we do it??)...then there is the dinner to think of.  Most of my friends are avid home cooks, like me, and so we recipe-swap and share Pinterest boards and anything -- ANYTHING -- to make the process of feeding our ... [READ MORE]

Chasing Waves

It is a dangerous business, as a parent, to try to recreate perfection.  Invariably it leads to disappointment, because any moment is really the sum of its parts: how well everyone slept (or didn't), how hungry they are, how much they really just wanted to stay home and chill quietly with that new book, who has a tummy trouble or a hangnail...I mean, these are little things but when you travel as a pack -- as families and friends so often do -- you may be dealing with all, or nothing.  It's a delicate balance. I almost went back and deleted that word, perfection, because obviously nothing ... [READ MORE]

Making Cake out of Beans (because we do crazy things like that in San Francisco)

On Saturday my sister and her girls came to town for the day (they live about 90 minutes north of here, on a bucolic hilltop in Santa Rosa).  We took a chilly morning walk along the Embarcadero with our strollers and ended up at the South Beach Marina playground for a spell, where Babygirl and my older niece took turns trying to get injured on the merry-go-round (aka, the Wheel of Pain and Tears).  My brother-in-law would be working for the next, oooh, twelve hours or so, and like any self-respecting mother of two toddlers facing an entire day of activity planning solo, my sister looked ... [READ MORE]

Tiny Dancer

I dream of his n' hers sinks (and his n' hers closets, as long as we're dreaming).  I mean, what I really dream of is a third bedroom and a second bathroom and a home office and hardwood floors, but in this remodeled hypothetical home I'd definitely install some his n' hers spaces. Dreams aside, we have made do with our standard, one-sink-for-all situation for some time now, and one of the funny little rituals that has evolved is that my husband and I brush our teeth at the same time every night.  It's like an unwritten date.  For two minutes, armed with dueling Sonicares, we stare at our ... [READ MORE]