Picturepocket's Blog

Category: parenting

  • The Dad Hole

    A few weeks ago, I was describing the feeling of losing my father, and I explained that it was like having a hole punched out of the middle of my chest. I know that sounds dramatic, and I also know that anyone who has been through similar situation feels exactly the same way.  Having a…

  • Work from Home Chicken Enchiladas 

    Ingredients:  2 lbs frozen boneless, skinless chicken thighs 1 package corn tortillas 1/2 bag of shedded cheese Can of enchilada sauce Taco seasoning Directions: 4:00 Arrive at home from school carpool pickup 4:15 Dust 2 lbs of frozen chicken thighs with taco seasoning and place in Instant Pot over two cups of water. Set for…

  • Happy Healthy Holidays

    How come it doesn’t seem like the holidays unless you’re in the Urgent Care waiting room for a family member? This last week, my youngest had a fever at the beginning of the week and so we brought her home until she seemed better then she went back to school. Then she got sick again,…

  • Fixer Uppers

    If necessity is the mother of invention, then poverty and misplaced confidence are the parents of DIY.  When we bought our home eight years ago, it was plenty large enough for Tim, me and a preschooler. Now we are a family of four and space is feeling tight. We have reconfigured the kids bedroom in…

  • The Hard Rest

    With school starting next week, I finally did a reset in the kids’ room.  On Monday and Tuesday, we went through all of the clothes and got rid of the fall and winter clothing they outgrew since last year. We also pulled anything lighter that won’t make it next to summer, size-wise. We were rewarded…

  • Stay’n Alive

    I took my kid to the pediatric cardiologist today. It was in the medical building complex up the hills of Portland where they have Dorenbacher’s, Shriners and Oregon Health Sciences University Hospitals—all the best medicine we have available to modern humans. The reason we went was to keep my youngest healthy. While she didn’t have…

  • Emotional Gifts

    This morning, I read a string on the internet of people talking about the emotional weight that women carry in families. One of the examples I read was wives sending Mother’s Day cards to their mothers-in-law for their husbands to help carry their relationship. Some were kind of sad, but I have a good story.…

  • Life with Dog

    This last Thanksgiving we got a dog. It’s my first one and it would have been a bigger deal before kids. Now, it’s like we’ve acquired an aggressive toddler. People often say having a dog prepares you for kids. Perhaps. It totally works the other way too. Anyway, it’s a third thing I have to…

  • PSA

    Yesterday, I was in a massive line at the Dollar Tree with my kids and an older, single woman behind me decided this would be a awesome time to engage me about her memories, thoughts and opinions of child rearing. As a current, active mom, this is not the time. Seeing me in public, with…

  • Boy Mama Drama

    With Ivy in her third year of preschool and me not teaching this semester, I have a little more time to hang out with some of the other moms and kids. We’ve had a couple play dates and some informal meet ups at parks. Ivy has enjoyed hanging out with the boys from her preschool…