The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

I am spending my birthday eve at Great Wolf Lodge riding water slides and shaking my groove thang at the nightly dance party, so if you are only as old as you feel, 36 should be pretty good! It really feels like I just got used to checking the 35 box off on things and now I have to remember a whole new number, but I guess that is how the years go; so short but so long. This year has been a good one, I feel settled into my roles: at work, for my kids, in my community and I get to wake up every morning married to my best friend and biggest supporter. I slayed my 5th marathon, made some new friends, kept all the old ones and beat my annual reading challenge (the important things in life!). I am hoping to create some new challenges for myself in 36, both physically and mentally and hoping to put it down into words in this space because I so enjoy sharing and coming back to remember and reflect on this life o' mine. I feel really lucky to be living this life, surrounded by these

Let me share with you a parenting hack for making sure that you never miss out on an exhibit/special event at a museum: as soon as you see it, look up the day that it ends and put it in your calendar at least two weeks before that date, even if that day is months in the future. Bonus if it is a museum that has free entry days and you can book it for that day. The two week buffer you give yourself allows for a reschedule if absolutely necessary, and sometimes you even get close to the date and are pleasantly surprised about the adventure you booked and may have totally forgotten about. You know, hypothetically, for a friend... This weekend happened to be the one I put in our calendar to visit the Peabody Essex Museum to see Playtime , which is an interactive and super fun exhibit for kiddos and grown ups alike (and ends on May 6th). We went down late knowing the museum closes at 5, figuring it would help us beat the crowds, but this exhibit is a big deal so we had a long line to wait

Although I try really hard not to complain about the weather (this is New England, after all) I just CANNOT with it anymore. It is like the 312th day of winter over here. Marathon Monday - I mean, are you KIDDING me? I just want anything over 50 degrees (okay, what I really want is like 70 but I am willing to negotiate). For someone who loves being outside and spends a lot of time walking as a commute, I am so over it. Do you hear me, nature? OVER IT. But anyways. Here is a bit else going on in life: Reading I just finished T he Paris Wife , which is an historical fiction novel written from the perspective of Ernest Hemingway's first wife. I love me some Hemingway and he also has a special place in my heart because of my high school English teacher who not only looked like him but also loved him and was the first person to have me read For Whom the Bell Tolls , along with so many other classics that I probably would not have read without his urging. Oh, and the book was real