It makes no sense.A shattered coconut on the middle of a residential street on an April morning in Northern Virginia.  Admit it.  It’s weird.My 6 year old noticed remains of the coconut on our walk to the office during the 1st weeks of the pandemic.(She came to work with me twice each week for 14 consecutive weeks…not…

Happy Tuesday! I’ve spent a lot of time the past few months taking items off my calendar. I used to joke that my Google Calendar looked like Rainbow Brite threw up all over it (showing my GenX age here). We were busy, but wasn’t everyone? Everything had it’s time block because that’s when it was. There…

Happy Tuesday!“Summer vacation” has never felt so strange!Yesterday was the first day of Summer Break. I’ll admit it. We were pretty lost and confused. Full credit to my kids, they rocked the pandemic homeschooling schedule we had set up in March. In one of his best ideas ever, my husband set up twice-daily Facebook Messenger…

I can’t dance like Beyoncé. I know, it’s hard to believe. I can hold my own on a dance floor at a PT conference once or twice a year but that’s the extent of it (maybe an impromptu dance party with the kids!) I watched Black King on Disney+ (not once but twice) this weekend.  Full…

Neither of them were paying attention.Our 8 month old Border Terrier puppy, Abby, had her nose to the ground, sniffing every inch of the parking deck. Her eyes wouldn’t even dart up to look at my son, aggravated that she wasn’t paying attention.He’d given up about 15 minutes into the obedience class. “How much longer?” he…

It’s been a hard pill to swallow. I was supposed to be on the slopes of Mt. Rainier this week. My transient, homeless parents (they’ve lived in their RV for over 20 years), spend the summer in Washington state. We usually take off in late August, like the rest of DC, & find an Airbnb near where…

Memorial Day was always special growing up.There’s a small rural cemetery in the hills of north-central Pennsylvania where at least half of the graves are my relations in some way, tracing back to before the Civil War. Every Sunday before Memorial Day, there was a small parade and ceremony. The local high school band filed…

It’s a distant memory. You might have celebrated it, but didn’t know it had a name.   You’d take the day (or at least the morning) off, the kids would actually get out of bed without an argument, assemble the 1st day of school neighborhood photo shoot, & drop them off with new backpacks & a crisp new…

Shut the door.  Get outside immediately.  Meet in the front yard. Remember the days when we had to make a plan & stick to it? If we didn’t, someone got hurt or lost or in really big trouble. Assembly time. In my rural childhood public school, the kind where Kindergarten & 12th grade were on…

What’s in your workout closet? There was a mad rush a few weeks ago to purchase workout equipment: Pelotons, weight sets & all the gizmos. Then, the rush of the waterbottle & bodyweight workouts on social media, then push up & balance challenges. This week, I’m seeing puzzles, puppies & a lot fewer workouts. Why?…

You’d think after 5 weeks under a stay at home order & I’d have a handle on our family’s routine- I will give myself a B. We got our new puppy Abby a few weeks before lockdown & it took a little bit to train all of us & get her sleep in check. Fortunately,…

It’s a broken record. For years, women come to me feeling guilty, like they should’ve figured out their problem on their own.  Why did I lift so much?  Why did I workout so hard during pregnancy?  Why didn’t someone tell me not to run a month after my daughter was born?  Why didn’t I know sex…

Happy Tuesday! To Gym or Not Gym…seems to be a question lately.Gone are the water-bottle challenges of the 110+ days ago & whether you’ve decided to go back into the gym, keep doing driveway workouts with your new home-gym stash or take on parkour at the parks, there’s still some fundamentals you need to stick…

I felt a lump. Not the kind that takes your breath away on a breast exam (I‘m fine, YOU can start breathing now!) The kind that you know shouldn’t be on the back of your shoulder & definitely wasn’t there yesterday.  The kind that makes you stop in the middle of a soapy shower &…

Happy Tuesday! Has it been a little harder to workout on day 24 of the heat streak? Especially the past few days? Even if you exercise indoors? Me too.I thought I’d be the wiser one & head out for a long run on Sunday morning, new kicks (had a great & safe buying experience at Road…

Hi <<First Name>>, “Are you ready for everything to go back?” a friend asked. “No,” I replied. “I’m not and neither should you.” Let me preface this by saying this isn’t a statement on public health or political post on our rights as citizens. This is about the opportunities we’ve been offered in this crisis…

I’m a planner. I like to be prepared & know what’s coming. Having my kids has helped with relaxing those needs. Having kids & running a small business in the midst of a pandemic has blown it out of the water. You can plan all you want but prepare for your plans to change &…

It’s Tuesday again…Things have been uncomfortable lately. There’s more change going on around us. The next local COVID surge is imminent with good weather, protests and a desire to “get back to normal.” The protests would say otherwise, that “normal” is not something that we should want to go back to. I would agree unequivocally.…

They were supposed to be blue.Blue is MY color (have you seen my logo?) Every spring I plant blue Morning Glory seeds; in mid-summer we’re rewarded with tightly wound buds, with a purple-ish hue, gradually bursting open into the most heavenly pale blue with the first morning sun.  The flowers are exotic and unique,  the complete opposite of the…