The snow started before we returned home from our Hawaii trip and it was still icy enough that we parked my car at the bottom of the street that day, but the more intense second round didn't start until Friday afternoon. I was able to head home earlier in the day, so we were all…
We just got back from a week in Hawaii on Wednesday morning and returned to temperatures fifty to sixty degrees colder along with a whole bunch of ice and snow. Looking at the forecast before we headed back sure made it tempting to just not come home for a bit, but it appears that the…
Last Saturday we dropped the kiddo off for a sleepover at Nana's and we headed back out to the Olympic Peninsula (Port Angeles in particular) for a weekend trip for a neighbor's birthday. It's been over a year since we've gone overnight together without the kiddo, and it was a much needed trip. We each…
I've been an astronomy junkie off and on ever since I was a little girl and my dad and I would sit out on the deck of my parents' cabin in the mountains and pour over books to point out the constellations in the night sky. I remember knowing dozens of their names when I…
I still get a thrill writing 2019 on the cover photos for these. Sometimes I feel like I've been a blogger forever, and other times I can hardly wrap my brain around how long it's actually been. It still has not been crazy long in the grand scheme of things, but the third calendar year…
Well, we're now a few days into the new year and I have to say I'm pretty impressed with myself since I've yet to write 2018 (though that will probably change now that I've jinxed myself here). I'll take my success where I can since I have yet to create any kind of goals or…
Amazing that this is somehow the last of my Frugal Five posts of the year already. Even more incredible is that I've been writing them consistently since October 2017. Something that began initially as "filler" posts has turned into something I love to write. My Monday posts tend to be more broad and personal finance…
December babies tend to either love the holidays or hate them. Growing up, birthdays tend to blend into Christmas celebrations; presents are often combined, birthday parties are moved or sparsely attended thanks to the obligations of the invitees. And yet, I have always loved the Christmas season as well as my birthday, even though there…
Since my birthday was last Thursday but I had an evening meeting that day, we celebrated over the following weekend instead. And since that weekend happened after last week's Frugal Five, I decided to write about that trip here. Like most birthdays and holidays, we tend not to buy each other physical gifts but instead…
Apparently Tuesday was the darkest day in the last two years with almost no sun output (0.55 mJ/m^2, if you're counting). The good news is, we aren't even to the shortest day of the year yet. Oh wait. Perhaps that isn't good news. I do love the Pacific Northwest, and I do love the holiday…