The last 48 hours at our house could be summed up with 1 word: unexpected.

Nothing major, and a good variety ranging from potentially-amazing to, "Oh wow. That actually happened."

At either end of the spectrum and everywhere in-between, we had expected something different. If we had been clinging to o...

It's "back to school" day here in Virginia, and last night we bid farewell to the amazing summer break we enjoyed. This was probably my favorite summer we've had so far (more to come in a future post about the details), and it would be bittersweet to say goodbye if I didn't feel like we could build ...

I watched an Instagram reel tonight of a woman expressing some very strong opinions about text messaging. She questioned why she feels guilty and apologizes for not texting back right away, when she never gave consent to be available at all hours of the day.

Her question made me think... "Huh. What e...

A wise coach (who happens to be my uncle) shared a lesson with me yesterday that his dad taught him back in his teen years: "We don't have to practice misery." The example he gave was, "When you hit your thumb with a hammer, you feel miserable. You don't have to keep hitting your thumb."

In other wor...

We had a few very hot days this week at the Ironroad house. The downstairs A/C unit stopped working, and the outside temperatures were in the upper 90's. Not a happy time.

I knew we needed to call the repair company, but I dreaded the news we'd receive after the diagnostic. In my mind, we were lookin...

I had a very simple but important topic on my mind yesterday: showering. 

Showering is something we do regularly (at least I hope so!), for the purpose of cleansing our bodies of any bacteria, oil, and dirt. It's also an opportunity to get rid of any unwanted hair and exfoliate our skin.

There are tim...

I asked a question on Facebook the other day, which has been opening some really interesting thoughts and conversations for me. 

The question was simply: What are you craving right now?

I expected to receive a wide range of responses, but I frankly didn't expect people to be so open and honest. I'm ...

I've been paying $8.16 for 18 eggs at my usual grocery store. I happened to be at a different store yesterday morning, and to my surprise the same quantity + quality of eggs were $4.59. 

This is a big difference! And they weren't even on special sale or anything!

The $8.16 price I've been paying was a...

I got to watch Chris do a fun thing yesterday! He randomly got the chance to fill in as a caddy for a friend-of-a-friend who's a professional golfer on the Senior PGA tour, and it was like watching a kid on Christmas. He had the best time.

And he was great at it! He did his homework to understand h...

In my "Motherhood Day" post, I promised you the rest of this story (to be read in your best Paul Harvey voice), so here goes. 

As I wrote before, Mother's Day morning started with our 6-year old bursting into our room and announcing urgently:

"You GUYS. Something happened. You GOTTA come see this."

I ...

I was out walking this morning, when a huge collection of beautiful blooms stopped me in my tracks. They looked like pom poms! These softball-sized puffs of tiny white flowers looked almost like hydrangea, but the petals were a little bit different. They made me instantly smile when I saw them, so I...

"Can't" is a no-no word at our house. Not at the soap-in-your-mouth level, but it definitely gets called out. Why? Because I want our kids to grow up telling the truth. 

Can't is--in most cases--simply not accurate on its own, and can really keep us stuck.

It might feel like you can't in this moment, ...