what’s on my mind for 2018

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Today is a rare day with time for reflection since I am home alone, without work and without Reese, for the whole day. Since we are leaving for LA this week, we switched one of her pre-school days to today as we pay for 3x per week even when we’re on vacation. While I could have worked, I took the opportunity to stay home, catch up on tasks that I have wanted to do for weeks and months even (e.g. clean out our car) and just take the opportunity to do what I want without distraction. Read more →

happy new year + mountain home dreaming

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Hello, 2018! Let’s start off this Happy New Year with some big dreams . . .

I’ve been dreaming about a weekend mountain home getaway for quite awhile now. It’s not surprising considering that I grew up in a small mountain town and some of my best childhood holiday memories revolve around winter ski weekends in Bend, Oregon. And now, after 7 years in Switzerland, we’ve both grown to love spending weekends away in the mountains, hiking, relaxing, and playing in the snow throughout winter. Read more →

fall update & portland, finally

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Hello, are you there? Happy Saturday, and yay weekend!! Apologies for my long absence.

If you’ve been following along on Instagram you know that summer’s end came quickly and we were so busy enjoying every moment in the US with our friends and family that I missed catching you up here. It was a glorious few weeks with so many people around to play with Reese, almost too many amazing coffee cafe trips, shopping, and time to just relax. To top it off, we got to spend the last few days on an Iceland and that was also super cool.

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freitag favorites + summer bucket list

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Summer is officially here, and it’s seriously scorching. As always this time of year, I have a new appreciation for air conditioning. Work is almost more enjoyable as it’s cooler in my office than at home, in the front of a fan, with a damp cooling towel (like right now). Despite careful, strategic shade and window shutting/opening, the steady temperatures mean that after a week of heat, it’s been around 81 degrees in our apartment most of the day and it’s not cooling off too much at night. Ugh.

So, while I’m off to cool off under the hose, I’ll leave you with my summer bucket list, and a few other favorites from this week. Read more →

bonkers for bärlauch

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When I first moved to Switzerland 6 years ago, one of my first big adjustments was discovering that I may not find the produce I was looking for at the local grocery store (usually Coop or Migros), especially if it was either too late (or too early) in the season. I was already a pretty seasonal cook in the US, but I didn’t have to be if something else struck my fancy and at least I didn’t have to visit so many different shops to find an elusive butternut squash or the last bag of spinach. (Forget finding kale. That’s only really become a thing here in the last year or so.) Read more →

resolutions for 2017

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Here we are already halfway into January, and I’m just now finalizing my resolutions. Some of us, like Reese, just go at the year full tilt already have met major milestones in 2017, like walking. Others, like me, think about resolutions but struggle with following through.

The last time I posted my resolutions here was in 2014, and some of these are still high on my list. I only accomplished half of that list; thanks to Sonos and Spotify, we definitely listen to more music (#3), and we’ve done pretty well on travel (#4), including to spend more time with our friends and family, and keeping a spirit of adventure (#8-10).

So, before January rushes by, here’s my new list, in no specific order. I’m bringing back a few on the list from 2014, and I’ll take any tips on improved accountability. Read more →

freitag favorites + five years

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I’m really happy to see this week come to an end, especially because it marks the start of a special weekend followed by a short summer holiday.

First, this Sunday marks our five year wedding anniversary. In some ways, it seems like no time has passed; in other ways, so much has changed. Our wedding day was so memorable, beautiful, and mostly, so much fun. Enough time has passed that I would change some small things if I had the opportunity to plan it again, but the most important decision I definitely wouldn’t change. I am so lucky that I get to share every day with Martin, and now watching him with Reese pretty much just makes my heart explode with love for our little family. I love them both so much, and I’m so happy to have a little extra special time to enjoy just being the three of us.

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