Small-space living tips that even families in bigger homes can learn from
My partner and I are raising two young kids in a third floor walk up apartment in Brooklyn. We have two small bedrooms. How small, you ask? Well, when I insisted that we get a queen-sized bed during month six of my second pregnancy, the trade-off was that we would no longer be able to shut our bedroom door. We have a living room space, a kitchen and a bathroom. While our apartment is bigger than what many people make do with in the city, its not spacious by any extent.
Human-toilet training my cat
Recently we moved to the country and for a variety of country reasons, I didn’t want our cat Atticus venturing outside (ticks, snakes, disease, wild dogs, backyard chickens, environmental damage). But as Atticus is a poos-outside cat and I like it that way, I wasn’t too keen about cleaning up kitty litter for the rest of my life (sigh). Happily, one of my Facebook friends shared that their cat had done their first poo into the toilet and intrigued, I internet searched how to achieve this. And achieve it we did!
My doula didn’t answer her phone but I had a good hospital delivery anyway
I enjoyed working with the doula and thinking about how I could “reframe” pain and manage my panic in labor (panic is a big thing for me). I also prepared “birth affirmations” and put them on index cards for the doula to read to me when I started to panic during labor. I also read a wonderful book called The Big Book of Birth that gave much information about labor both physiologically and psychologically.
3 reasons why LeakyCon might be the king of all geek cons and considerations for the future
I mentioned LeakyCon a few weeks ago in a round-up of summer cons that would be great to take your teen to — and boy, was it ever. This was my first year experiencing the pure, unadulterated geek fest that is LeakyCon, and it didn’t disappoint. What began four years ago as a small meet-up of Harry Potter fans has blossomed into a series of days that are truly special. I started reading Harry Potter 14 years ago, and there was nothing like this back in the day. No way to easily connect with people over the internet (there was no Tumblr! Twitter! Not even Facebook!), no way of being able to share the serious feels I had about the series with others unless they were a) my friends and b) actually interested in the books. Basically, I spent a lot of time talking with my then nine-year-old brother about Harry Potter, because no one else I knew really cared.
Parenting sweet spots: spontaneous “I love yous” and eating raw broccoli
Right now we’re in the midst of what I like to call a “parenting sweet spot” — those weeks or months in which there aren’t any major behavioral problems going on, most-to-all of the balanced meals are being eaten, and my child’s general disposition is one of a curious, sweet, and incredibly polite little boy. To me, these sweet spots are evidence that the hard work you put in weeks or sometimes years prior has paid off: your kid has actually learned something from you, and that something is good.
Why it’s awesome to raise a city child
My family was never really suburban in the traditional sense of the word. We went downtown often, attended lots of theatre and ate in interesting restaurants. But it was always a long schlep to get anywhere. We needed to leave the house an hour before any dinner reservation. And I always had to make sure to catch the last TTC ride home, curbing late-night teenage adventures. I hated walking across the deserted parking lot of Finch subway station to retrieve the family car and drive the rest of the way home. It was too quiet. I always preferred the noise and bustle of downtown to the eery silence of deserted suburbia.
Substituting adventures with doing chores: The strange relationship strains of repatriating
Community wisdom holds that the three most stressful life events that a couple can undertake are changing jobs, moving, and death. For us, repatriation combined the first two major stressors while throwing in several others, making our first year back in the US a very tumultuous transition. When the customs officers welcomed us “home,” it felt like our idea of home had shifted from holding an endless sense of wonder to embodying a stack of drudging responsibilities. The towering mound of laundry only served as a physical reminder of this loss, and we were sulking. But, through trial and effort, we seem to have hit on a reasonable set of guidelines for building up the sense of self we both felt we lost, while investing in each other.
Looking for websites/cookbooks with recipes for two people
With recipes in most cookbooks and websites ranging for 4-to-6 servings per recipe, this usually means we have a LOT of leftovers. We have been halving the recipes we’re eating, but often this doesn’t work. Does anyone have any suggestions for cookbooks/websites that specialize in smaller portions, or any reducing portion size tips you’d like to pass on to a novice?