LR & Daniel Attempt to Return Mother’s Day to the Mother (It’s Harder Than It Looks)

Every Mother's Day, we kids gather ourselves together and descend on Mother for what we convince her will be a celebration of her day. Mother gets the house ready. Mother puts out fresh towels. Mother buys the food. Mother makes the meal. And we show up with a few cards and a few gifts, and …

An Ode To A Friend

Sometimes the best things in life are things...but they're still usually the simple things. I got Simba for a birthday once. I must have been about eight, and The Lion King had just come out. I was obsessed with Simba. Then again, that's not saying much, because I was obsessed with all of my stuffed …

LR turns 32, still demands Macaroni & Cheese and singing telegrams

My birthday is this weekend, and if you're a member of the Green Gang, then you already know what's about to go down. People say birthdays get less exciting as you age, and while I'm not as enamored to celebrate 32 as I was for 22, I'm still pretty excited. Birthdays have always been special …

LR Afterthoughts: On making coffee

You know you wanted more! Here’s an afterthought on: "LR is afraid to use her coffee maker, doesn't know where grounds go!" Another problem with coffee that I've discovered, is that conventional coffee makers don't measure water in 8-oz cups. Instead, the markings on a coffee maker actually correspond to something like 5-oz cups (because …

LR is afraid to use her coffee maker, doesn’t know where grounds go

So help me God, I don't think I've ever made a decent pot of coffee. I feel like this is the kind of thing they should teach you in school. Instead of learning about the layers of the ozone or where Portugal is on a map (next to Prague, right?) or how to use the …

My childhood as told through breakfast foods

Snow Day Cinnamon Rolls In the morning, when it was still barely light outside, Daddy would come into my room before leaving for work and say "you can still sleep." I'd open my eyes just enough to see snowflakes blowing by the windows, then I'd hunker back down in my blankets for my favorite kind …

LR Afterthoughts: On pandemic grocery shopping

You know you wanted more! Here's an afterthought on: "LR & MB brave grocery store, end up wishing we'd just ordered off Amazon"! Turns out, grocery shopping is a whole debacle, even if you're not going to the store. Through the whole pandemic situation, George/Gramps/Pa has been doing his part by self-quarantining. So to ensure …

LR & MB brave grocery store, end up wishing we’d just ordered off Amazon

Is it just me, or has grocery shopping become a whole "thing" these days? It kindof feels like an event now, doesn't it? Like how going for a drive or getting a soda at the drugstore was a big night out in 1950. The last time MB and I went to the grocery store, I …

LR’s #1 Tip for Keeping a Clean House: Don’t compare yourself to your mother.

I come from a long line of strong, overzealous cleaners. My mother's interpretation of daily "straightening up" is basically my version of a whole-house cleaning. And she tells stories about how her mother used to do a yearly "spring cleaning," which involved removing and washing drapes, unloading the contents of closets to wipe down shelves, …

LR doesn’t want to talk to you in the grocery store

If I could enact a law, I'd make it illegal for people to strike up conversations with strangers in checkout lines. Introverts, I know you know what I'm talking about. Call me antisocial, but to me there are few things worse than having to make small talk with a random stranger in a checkout line. …