Matt’s birthday is today, so I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do for him. I was going to get really creative and crafty and make him a personalized version of SET, a game we both really like. The three shapes that repeat throughout the cards were going to be a bloodhound, a chicken, and a baby.

However, the thought of trying to work with a graphics program to execute my vision started to overwhelm me. I’m trying to simplify my life these days…

So I opted for books instead. Since our dream is to move to Austin someday, I bought him two Austin-related

Our baby is due seven days after my birthday. One week! Even though I don’t place much stock in a single “due date” (I think it’s much more realistic to establish a “due window”), it’s clear that our baby boy and I will have birthdays in very close proximity.

Although I know lots of parents who enjoy celebrating their birthdays around the same time as their children’s, I don’t think I’ll be one of them. I think I would prefer to help my child plan his birthday party in February and then plan my

Our new holiday countdown calendar is completely ready to go. I drew up some shapes (a tree, candy cane, holly, and something else that isn’t coming to mind), wrote a festive activity on each one, laminated them (yes, I have a home laminator–I can’t help it; I’m an elementary school teacher!), and cut them out. Our plan is to start our festivities the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

My goal is to have all of our supplies ready in advance, so we don’t have to waste any time gathering things for our various projects. For one of the activities, we’re going to make baked goods for our colleagues. I got Matt