Living the American Dream (in Germany)

I don’t want to speak for everyone, but there seems to be a collective existential thing going on. There’s just a lot to consider with how much is both possible and falling apart.  For some, it feels like angst, maybe depression or bouts of panic. For some it’s their new era to be excited, empowered…

What to Buy at the Germany Apotheke

Being from Texas, I know my way around makeup. It was once a printed statistic that our neighborhood Neiman Marcus sold more tubes of lipstick a year than anywhere else in the world. (Tales are also oversized in Texas, but by my family’s and friends’ known contributions alone, I can see it.) I think that’s…

Fall Hygge from Etsy

As someone who has spent most of my life in Texas, there’s almost a thrill in the Wild West’s distaste for following seasonal weather. I’ve gone swimming on Thanksgiving and Easter, worn a t-shirt and watched it snow on Christmas Day. Be ready for anything and you’ll be fine is really how it’s done there,…

Etsy Gifts Under $25: Kids Edition

Especially now that we live out of town, I delight in few things more than spoiling my nieces and nephew by mail. I remember being so excited to get a package from an out-of-town aunt or grandparent growing up. It seems like the cost of an average children’s gift is rising these days. Honestly though,…

How to Make a German School Cone

I know and I cannot believe that we are thinking about Back to School again. I am never the one to start these conversations, as you can usually find me at the pool feeding my family sandwiches until 9:00 p.m. the day before The Big Day. As much as it pains me, I think our…

IKEA Erktorp Slipcovers and Other Ways to Fancy Up a Rental

When I first considered moving from Texas to Germany, I pictured us in a chateau with vintage wood beams on the ceiling, an upstairs and downstairs and sprawling backyard. Hey, it could happen. The German housing market continues to humble those of us who flock to her nature and care, but I’m here for the…

Between Protests

As we round the corner into late July, I am resentful.  In the rhythm of life, I view deep summer as the season of adrenal reset for Mothers. The children are feral, they eat fresh food off the vines with their bare hands half naked outside and run wild until they pass out. To touch…

How to Make Grocery Store Flowers Look Nice

On Fridays in Dallas, my favorite thing was Markus walking in the door from the grocery store with two drinks for us from the coffee bar, a paper bag filled with supplies for his amazing nachos and a cello wrapped bouquet of flowers poking out of the top. They mean everything and brighten up the…

Why I Moved From Texas to Germany

This week’s it’s my birthday.  For the last two years, I’ve wished on my birthday candles that I would move before my next birthday. This last year feels like a one-blinker – just a flash of experiences and challenges – and here I am, alive and writing to you from my desk in Freiburg, Germany….

Summer Pool Day Essentials

If there’s one thing I know as a native Texan, it’s how to spend a day at the pool. Beginning my ways as a teen girl to meet friends and only continuing to refine itself through my years of Motherhood, I am a master of the art of packing a bag of summer pool day…