Last week, we flew down to El Paso to visit our goddaughter and her family. Or, as our son calls them, his cousin, aunt, and uncle. Not all family is by blood, and they are some of ours. Thanks to COVID, we'd only gotten to see them for short snippets of time over the last…
These last ~4 months have been long. Mostly a good long, but long nonetheless. As I’d mentioned before, I ended up getting very involved in the state legislation session this year in regards to housing policy. But it was absolutely worth it, and one bill we helped write got passed, which felt incredible. I also…
I’m finally starting to come out of my work overwhelm of the past few months, so I’m back with a Friday update! As many of you know, my day job is all about (sustainable) affordable housing. These past few years we’ve gotten involved in state level policy, and this year we went allll in. Which…
It is SIXTY degrees and sunny today!! Hello spring and warmth. I have seriously missed you. My weekend is going to be spent outside - what about you all? Gardening, biking, walking the doggo. All the outside things, thankyouverymuch. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info. Friday’s Frugal Five…
Welcome to March! And slightly longer days. Sunset is now almost 6pm, which is glorious. Finishing work days before it's completely dark is just lovely. For those of you who don't live at latitudes closer to the poles, the difference between 4pm and 6pm sunsets is everything. I'll handle the cold, wet days just fine,…
Since I've skipped the last couple of Fridays, I'm writing to you as the parent of a now eight year old! Which means we're halfway to sixteen (if he even ends up driving at that age - maybe we'll get him an electric bike instead). So far, I don't have any "bittersweet" feelings about him…
Phew. I made it in the first week of February at least. The first five weeks of the year is still reasonable for a book recap of the previous year, right? I do really enjoy being able to look back at the books I've read over previous years, especially when I'm looking for an easy…
Life has been packed full the past few weeks for me, but I really do value having this space and this blog, so I'm doing my best to share updates here most Fridays. I may not write here as much these days, but I am nowhere near the place where I'd be ready to say…
We are thiiiiiis close to being back to 5pm sunsets (4:51pm tonight). While I don't mind the rain so much, I do mind the short days during the winter, especially when I'm having a busy time at work and don't get done until after it's dark most days. If you're in the northern part of…
We've made it to 2023. Will this be a better year? No matter what, it means that I've now been blogging at this little space for seven different calendar years (2017 to today). When I started TLRE, I didn't realize how much it would change my life. But through the relationships I've made by being…