A Day in the Life 2025

Welcome to my annual sociological research data collection on myself where I record everything I do in one day. My plan was to do the first Friday of January, but I forgot about it last week. Last Friday was more pleasant, though! I can briefly report that on January 3rd, I worked in the morning, and in the afternoon the 4 of us went to the California Science Center where we watched an IMAX movie about blue whales. For dinner, we went to Jack in the Box and one kid devoured almost an entire breakfast combo platter.

And now, for the report on January 10, 2025. Buckle up, it's a doozy!!

Location: Pasadena, CA. In the SE part of town, not our regular north-central neighborhood.

Cast of characters: DF, my husband. Gus and Gibson, our 9 year old twins.

7:00 AM wake up, later than normal. I had a hard time sleeping last night due to all the stress of the Eaton Fire, a huge wildfire that sparked in the early evening on January 7th in Altadena and spread out of control due to wind gusts near 100 mph that night. I check my phone for fire updates and see nothing moved closer to us overnight.

7:05 AM the kids wake up and come join DF and me in bed. (Normally, I would wake them up by 6:30 AM on a Friday but school is cancelled due to the fire. We were supposed to have a PTA Blacktop Coffee for parents at school this morning, along with campus clean up...obviously not happening.) DF attempts to keep snoozing while the boys and I play some NYT games. Gibson gets to choose the starting word for Wordle today - he picks ZEBRA. We still manage to solve it, lol. Then we all work together to solve Connections, though none of us understand the purple category and have to watch a YouTube video to learn about [SPOILERS!] the Monty Hall problem.

7:45 AM get up when the children get too rambunctious in bed. They go back to their room to play on their Chromebooks with towels tucked in the crack at the bottom of the door to keep the soot out.

8:00 AM I head downstairs to make some toast and tea.

Aside: Downstairs? Since when do we live in a 2 story house? Well, since we had a fire at our house about 2 months ago, which caused extensive damage to our kitchen and caused us to be displaced. We're staying in a rental house about 3 miles south of where we usually live. It's new construction, 3 bed, 2.5 bath, 1200 sq ft with an attached garage. The fire was caused by spontaneous combustion in our neighbor's yard waste on a red flag fire danger day. So yeah, these fires going on right now in LA County? They've got all 4 of us rather on edge.

But back to the present.

While I eat breakfast, I text/message with people near and far who are checking in on us. We are south of the fire evacuation and warning zones, though we do have bags packed and ready to go if evacuation becomes necessary. Our regular house is in a Level 2 evacuation warning zone. I'm staying in touch with the neighbors over there. The fires got within a mile or so when the flare ups were really bad.

8:30 AM Make breakfast for the boys and retreat back upstairs to our bedroom/my office, where it's less smoky, again with a towel by the door. 

9:00 AM Sign in to work. I'm in my second year as a part-time grant writer, and I've also been dipping my toes in managing our fundraising database. The agency I work for is located in Altadena. So far our campus has been spared in the fire. I draft some language for potential fire relief-related communications and try to chip away at some other projects, though it's challenging to focus. 

11:30 AM done with work for this week. Feed the children some snacks while discussing how math is applicable to politics. I respond to a friend's question about navigating a fire loss (didn't realize my knowledge was going to be useful so soon...). I also finally find out what water zone we're in at the rental. I knew it wasn't Pasadena Water and Power (PWP), but the landlord is paying the water bill so I wasn't sure. PWP is having troubles with water safety and quality due to the fire. Luckily, this house is served by a San Marino water carrier so we're not in an impacted water zone at this time.

11:50 AM the kids still haven't finished their homework for this week, so DF and I enforce a screen break for homework time. In math, they're multiplying 2-digit numbers (like 16 x 13). And for reading, they have a book in Spanish about hydroelectric power development in Sierra Leone. 

12:30 PM They've made a good effort on homework and are done for today. They watch DF play video games or something on his phone. I take a shower and make sure the squeegee off the walls when I'm done. I'm trying to keep the house nice for the owners, and also I hate scrubbing full tile showers with glass doors.

1:20 PM Eat some leftover pasta for lunch. Pro tip for all you dairy-free people out there: Papa John's garlic sauce is dairy free, and it adds a nice kick of flavor to your standard marinara sauce. While doom scrolling during lunch, I find out that PUSD has closed schools all of next week, too. It makes sense, but oh man, this is going to be rough bc DF is going to be out of town all week at a work training. 

1:45 PM Draft the weekly newsletter for our church Sunday School class. One family in our class lost their home, and another member's place of work was destroyed. It's a very challenging time. We're doing our best to support each other through it all.

More doom scrolling, then I eat some cookies and drink tea. The kids play Cat Quest III on the Nintendo Switch.

3:00 PM I consider doing laundry - our washer and dryer are out in the garage, which is probably full of smoke. I stick my nose into the garage and sniff - yes, quite smoky. Outside the front door, it actually doesn't smell that bad. I briefly open the garage door thinking I'll let it air out, but then realize a bunch of soot and ash will blow in if I do that. So I decide to just wash a load of towels and see what happens. Note, this is the first time any of us have opened an exterior door since Tuesday. It's seriously starting to feel like COVID lock down over here.

3:30 PM the children are going crazy. We play Spot It for awhile. They need to do something physical. This house doesn't have a lot of space to run around safely, so I direct them to their room for a (supervised) pillow fight. They wear themselves out eventually.

4:00 PM I gather up some clothes, shoes, and bed sheets that were donated to us after our fire, but that we haven't been using. One of the boys' classmates lost his home this week, and his mom reached out asking for clothes. I'm glad we have a little extra to share.

4:20 PM I move the laundry to the dryer - smells fine! Then I head out to run some errands in my KN95 mask. First, I drop off the bag of clothes. I need to go to the grocery store, but I decide to stop and get gas on the way because we're at about 1/3 tank and I want to be prepared just in case we have to evacuate. After filling up, I try to start the van and...nothing. It's sputtering but not starting. Oh. My. Word. This is the new (to us) 2021 Honda Odyssey we just bought a month ago when our last van BURNED UP IN A FIRE. And now this one isn't starting and what if we have to evacuate and we don't have a working vehicle and I. AM. TOTALLY. FREAKING. OUT!!! 

I look around and realize that, fortunately, I have happened to stop at a gas station that has an attached mechanic shop. So I walk over and ask a guy if he can help because my van won't start. He grabs some type of tester thing and says, oh yeah, your battery is shot. He jump starts the van for me. I'm grateful. I scrap the plan to get groceries b/c no way am I stopping this vehicle now. I call DF and ask him to try to find the Honda roadside assistance info we got from the dealership. I decide to hit the drive thru at Del Taco to pick up dinner, as it's usually a family favorite. 

5:45 PM return home, backing the van into the garage in case someone can come and replace the battery. I call the Honda service line and find out they are not like AAA and won't deliver a battery to me. But they will tow me to a Honda service center, if needed. I'm still freaking out because what if the van won't start next time I try??

6:00 PM wolf down an epic burrito and feel a bit better about life. Also I had a deal in the Del Taco app to buy one get one free, and who doesn't like free burritos? DF and I talk about the van and decide we'll see if it will cooperate to start up in the morning. I'm having flashbacks to when this exact same thing happened the last time we bought a used Odyssey - that a few weeks later, the battery died. I wonder if there is a battery conspiracy going on, but I can't figure out what the angle would be there.

6:40 PM Family video game time - Super Mario Party Jamboree. Surprisingly, there are no tears shed. That might be a first! We just play a few mini games.

7:00 PM Screens off for kids. Epic Gus and Gibson battle when they both go upstairs and somehow manage to start a fight about using the bathroom...even though there are 2 bathrooms up there. Meanwhile I'm trying to pay an invoice to our builder on our ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit). Construction was almost done on the ADU when the fire hit - the first one, in November. Now things are kind of in limbo, but we do owe the contractor money for the work he had already completed. The ADU sustained some fire damage in November. We're hopeful all those repairs will be covered by our insurance.

7:20 PM we play a family game of Coup. It's a card game. I quickly die, per usual. Everyone is happier when mommy dies first.

7:45 PM time to get ready for bed. It's the usual potty time and brushing teeth with a lot of stalling mixed in. Now that we live in a house with stairs, the kids like to play games that involve racing Slinkies, or cars, or other toys down the stairs. Once they're finally ready for bed, I grab their new footless footies from the dryer. (what we call PJs that are one piece but don't cover your feet). It's my turn for storytime tonight, which still involves a Goldilocks story! Tonight the Three Bears' house catches on fire when they are making porridge on the stove but get teleported away. I have to say, fires have been popping up a lot in their stories lately. Trauma coping strategy, I assume.

8:30 PM boys read books in bed. We're running low on library books. Hopefully at least some of the library branches will be able to re-open soon.

9:00 PM they're in bed but arguing. Gus was tapping on his legs while I was singing Gibson his good night song (Silent Night), which caused Gibson to growl-sing in annoyance. Not heavenly peace.

9:10 PM I hear them through the door discussing words they know in different languages. I venture downstairs to switch over one last load of laundry.

9:15 PM Upon returning from the garage, I heard the pitter patter of little feet on the second floor. I find them both underneath Gibson's bed, with blankets. They say something about a fortified bed that I don't really care to understand. I extract them both and tuck them in on the mattress side of their beds.

Then I typed up this epic saga, and that's about it for now. 

What will our lives look like in 2026?? Guess you'll have to come back next year to find out if I remembered to write about it!

A Day in the Life 2024

Hey readers, it's been awhile but I'm resurrecting the blog for my annual day-in-the-life post. I record everything I do on the first Friday of the new year. Looks like I forgot to do 2023, so I consulted my calendar to see that on 1/6/23, I was working in the morning, then met up with a friend for coffee in the afternoon. And now, on to the present!

Cast of characters: DF = Das Fenster, aka Dad. Gus & Gibson the 8 year old twins.

Location: Pasadena, CA

I sort of forgot to record the exact times that things happened today. Here are my best recollections.

7:00 AM Wake up when the boys come into our bedroom to tell me dreams they were having about school. They are on their last day of winter break and apparently having some feelings about returning to the academic life. I get up with them and we hang out on the couch in the den for awhile before facing the day. Once we get moving, I have to play Wordle, NYT Connections, and Spelling Bee, my daily ritual.

8:30 AM DF and I have a video appointment related to one of the kids and a medical condition. It goes well and is over sooner than I thought, so I make some breakfast and sign on to work earlier than expected.

9:00 - 10 AM work. I started a new job this past May as a grant writer, and so far it's going great. I work 20 hrs/week for a local child welfare and mental health agency. It's a remote job and flexible with my schedule. Yay! I just have one hour to finish up this week so it's a short day today.

After work I hang out with the guys for awhile. DF has been on vacation for the last 2 weeks, though he's normally off on Fridays. 

11:30 AM I go to the library to return our current stash and check out some new books for the kids. They usually read one or two picture books each night, so I try to keep our supply fresh! They are in 3rd grade this year, still doing the dual language (Spanish) program. Their teacher recommends that they read in both languages but I forgot to get any bilingual or Spanish books today, oops.

12:30 PM back home, making lunch for the boys and me. DF scrounged up some leftovers already. I check my email and see a notice from the library that a book I had on hold is now available. D'oh! 

1:00 PM Time to send out the weekly newsletter for our church group. DF is the president of our adult Sunday School class, so as the "first lady" my duties include drafting the weekly email for him. Gotta put my Communication degrees to work, you know :) 

1:30 PM the boys have been scheming all of break to turn the living room into a giant fort, and apparently today is the day. Gus gathers all the couch cushions in the house and piles them up in the middle of the floor. Then we discuss his vision for the fort. Gibson chimes in. We build a rather large fort that does indeed take over most of the living room. They also want to sleep in it tonight. We shall see... While they play in the fort, I fold some laundry.

2:30 PM play Super Mario Wonder, a new Nintendo Switch game they got for Christmas. All 4 of us can play together, which is nice. I like to be yellow Yoshi, who is a character that is invincible to everything except falling/getting squished. It's a good match for my skill level, lol.

3:00 PM Gibson and DF continue playing video games, while Gus and I need a break. He watches some YouTube while I pull out my laptop and work on PTA Treasurer stuff. I compare our budget to actual for income and expenses and draw up a draft of a mid-year budget adjustment. I was the PTA Secretary for the previous two years. This is my first time serving as Treasurer - it has been a bit of a learning curve, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now. I should also be working on the student picture pages for the school yearbook, but I don't really know what I am doing so I will continue to avoid that task. 

5:00 PM off to Domino's to pick up pizza for dinner. Gibson is on a major pizza kick lately. I stop by the library again while I'm out to retrieve the book that came in for me, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I saw this book on several of my friends' lists of "top books of 2023," so I'm looking forward to reading it!

5:30 PM DF and the boys are playing hide-and-seek while I load the dishwasher. They mainly seem to be hiding in their fort, which is not very sneaky. I suggest we all play a board game and we decide on Catan Jr. Things are going well for a couple rounds until a child who shall remain nameless has an epic meltdown due to other people not playing the way he thinks they should. The game is called on account of tears. 

6:30 PM the boys play Minecraft until the end of screen time at 7:00 PM. Then I get them a snack.

7:30 PM get the kids ready for bed. I still brush their teeth for them, and they always want me to tell them a story while I do so. Tonight I try to describe what my school was like in 3rd grade. I attended a private Christian school and recall pledging allegiance to the American flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible. Where are my 1980s evangelical kids at??

8:00 PM DF reads them a bedtime story in the living room, then there is a lot of scurrying back and forth as they gather everything they need to prepare the fort for bedtime. I sing them Silent Night, their bedtime song, and tell them that if it's too hard to sleep in the fort, I'll help them move to their beds. I'm posting this blog just before 9PM and all is quiet behind the couch cushions...wish us luck!

I will be reading my new book and then going to bed soon myself!

A Day in the Life, Year 7

This is everything that happened in my life on Friday, January 7, 2022. Location: Pasadena, CA.

Gus and Gibson are 6 1/2 years old.

6:30 AM Gus and Gibson wake up and crawl into our bed. They bring stuffed animals with them. Gus has a cheetah; Gibson has a family which includes a dog dad, unicorn mom, and baby dogicorn. Today the dog-unicorn family decides to adopt the cheetah as well. 

7:00 AM time to get ready for school. The kids are in first grade this year and have been attending in person since the beginning of the year, minus one week of quarantine due to positive COVID cases. I help them put on their uniforms, then make myself some coffee. I check my email to see negative COVID test results. The kids' school tests everyone on Wednesdays. 

7:20 AM Kindles turn off. I use the parental control functions to set time limits for them, and once they got used to it, it has been working well to keep our morning schedule moving along. Now it’s breakfast time. We have a standard breakfast menu that is hanging on the wall in the dining room. Gibson grabs a pencil and draws a picture of a cookie on it in hopes that it would join the permanent rotation along with toast, cereal, and waffles. Good try, ha ha.

7:42 AM we are out the door! Kids in puffy coats today because it is below 50 degrees. Too cold for Californians!

7:48 AM manage to drop off at school just before the bell rings. They get a squirt of hand sanitizer and temperature checks as they enter. I have upgraded their cloth masks to KN95 now as the Omicron variant is running rampant through LA county. Over 25% of the student body was absent on Tuesday. I stop to get gas at $4.45 a gallon.

8:10 AM Back at home, I eat breakfast then chat with DF. He works Monday-Thursday and has every Friday off. A few months ago, he had to start going back to the office about half time. I play some Duolingo, a language learning game. I want to keep my Spanish skills strong. Recently I’ve started Japanese as well. I like learning hiragana (one of the writing systems). It’s so different from English, and I think it is cool that humans have created such diverse ways to communicate. I play a few other games and scroll social media.

9:20 AM take shower. I try out some new skin care I received as Christmas presents, including a moisturizing eye cream and a spot/blemish controlling turmeric roller. 

9:50 AM Time for some work. I submit my first time sheet for paid employment since 2015. I just started a new job. This week was online training. It’s a temporary and part-time position administering a standardized test for the US Department of Education. It will be good to get something current on my resume.

Next I type up minutes from a school meeting yesterday. I am the secretary for the school PTA and one other committee this year, called ELAC - the English Learner Advisory Committee. For this one, the meeting is conducted in both English and Spanish, and I produce bilingual minutes. It definitely takes some extra brain power, and there is a bilingual staff member who reviews my work. She says I’m doing ok and it makes her job easier, so I guess I’ll keep it up.

10:00 AM DF takes the van in for an oil change. I will be commuting to different sites around LA and the surrounding suburbs, so I need to have my vehicle in good shape. 

10:30 AM Uncle Monte, DF´s brother, emerges from the guest room and greets me as he gets ready for work. He has been staying with us since the fall. He works swing shift as a delivery driver. 

10:45 AM I am done with the meeting minutes and have the house to myself. I crank up the Hamilton soundtrack while putting away laundry.

11:00 AM DF is back. We watch the latest episode of the Expanse. It’s a sci-fi show on Amazon Prime. Season 6 just started and I’m having a hard time remembering what happened in the previous 5 seasons, in part because most of the action happens on various space ships that all look similar to me…but I still enjoy it.

12:00 PM lunch time, then I wash some dishes and attempt a vinegar-baking soda solution for the hard water stains that have built up in one of our toilets. Oh such a glamorous life I lead. It worked somewhat but I need something stronger to really do the job. While waiting for the solution to do its thing, I read a social media post about vaccine mandates that is full of logical fallacies. I write a rebuttal in my head but decide not to actually post it.

12:40 PM meal planning. Since I will be working 2-3 days a week for the next couple of months I am doing what I can now to get organized. DF and I discuss some meal options, and I look up a few new ideas to add to the rotation. I make a spreadsheet of ideas. 

1:00 PM DF turns on the new Nintendo Switch to play Zelda. It was a whole family Christmas present. I ponder if the children would eat a casserole. I can’t recall them ever doing so… I put aside the meal planning project and read a book instead, “The City We Became” by N.K. Jemisin. I am on chapter 2 and I am already digging it! She is a great author. My latest Amazon order arrives, replacement parts for the robot vacuum, which is probably my favorite household tool. 

2:00 PM I leave to pick up the kids from school

2:50 PM return home. The school is a 2-3 minute drive from us. What takes so long? Their class comes out late, and they boys like to play on the steps outside the building. We walk across the street to the library to use the bathroom, but of course they have to fight about who is going to go inside first. They have been so loud inside the library lately that I make one of them wait outside with me while the other one goes inside. 

I get them a snack and set the 1 hour sand timer while they watch Daddy play Zelda. They get an hour of screen time before homework. I eat my own snack and putter around the house.

4:00 PM homework time, but first they request a piece of candy. They have a math worksheet, a book to read, and their snap (sight) words to review. They need a brain break between English and Spanish so they play Prodigy, a fun math game that involves battling wizards.

4:45 PM I head over to Domino's to pick up pizza for dinner. It's cold and foggy outside. My phone says it's 53 degrees but it feels colder. At home the kids are still playing prodigy. They take a pizza break, but get distracted by yogurt pretzels that I left on the table from earlier. Oops. I heat up some leftovers for myself, since I don't eat cheese.

5:30 PM homework is done and the guys are playing more Nintendo. I watch as the gamers beat the final Bowser boss on New Super Mario Bros! Fun animations at the end. I'm half watching thyen play, half scrolling on my phone. I have also poured myself a glass of Two Buck Chuck Cab Sav. Not that bad really, I usually get the red blend but Trader Joe's was out of it.

7:00 PM screens off, and the nightly WrestleMania begins. The rest of the routine includes snacks, read stories, go potty, and brush teeth. I manage to load and start the dishwasher, too. 

8:00 PM I tell the Goldilocks story tonight. Yes, this tradition continues! Tonight's tale is Among Us themed (the video game). Gus is an imposter, Gibson is a sniper, Mama Bear is a ninja, Baby Bear is a medic. I don't have to say much, as the boys pretty much tell their own story these days. One more potty break, several hugs and kisses, and by 8:20 I'm out of their room. Better than usual these days! 

8:28 PM Gibson calls me in to tell me he's scared of Huggy Wuggy. This is a character in a video game he has never seen or played, but it's apparently a popular thing to talk about to scare your classmates in first grade. I tell him to think about something happy like unicorns or candy rainbows. Gus says he's scared of furry tarantulas crawling in the window. They talk to each other for a bit and eventually quiet down. 

I eat a snack and veg out on the couch until bed time.

9:55 PM I get ready for bed as another day in the life comes to a close.

Settling In to the Nest

We've been in our new house about 6 weeks now, and it's starting to feel like home. We've got most of the boxes unpacked and new furniture to make the rooms functional. Sure, there's still a few random piles of "what do we do with this?" stuff strewn about, but I feel it's an acceptable level of clutter :)

Here are some of my favorite things about living in our house so far, in no particular order:

• Ease of laundry. At the apartment, our dryer vented out into a hallway. (Lame!) So that meant I had to plan my drying cycles for a time of day when I could leave the balcony door open to let out the hot air. But on scorching days I would wind up running the A/C to counteract the dryer, which seemed like a pointless waste of money. It was extra ridiculous that the dryer was near the A/C thermostat so it would cause it to kick on quickly. In the house, however, we have a normal dryer that vents outside. It's by the backdoor so even if it does heat up a little, it's not roasting the whole house.
  
• Back yard. I knew we'd all enjoy having a yard! The boys have managed to play unsupervised for about 5 minutes without major incident Yes, one of them did dunk the other's hair in the water table, but only because "me need wash his dirty hair." Oh, I see...how helpful of you...
  
• Close to park. Yes, our apartment was also close to a park, but by the time you walked all the way to the elevator, went down to the ground floor, crossed the train tracks, crossed the street, and made it over to the playground...well, it was a bit of a production. Now, since the boys are older, we got them balance bikes. It's about a 3 minute walk to the park here! We are struggling with the return trip still. Usually at least one of them has a meltdown and refuses to ride home. But I have hope that things will improve (keep trying, you'll get better).
  
• Separate play room. Being able to toss all the kids' toys in a room and close the door is awesome! And not having toys in their bedroom seems to be more conducive to sleeping.
  
• Dining room table. This hasn't been quite as amazing as I hoped, but it's certainly better than high chairs crammed in the kitchen. Gus is currently refusing to sit in a chair by himself (he wants to sit on someone's lap for meals), which is driving me up the wall. I try to tell myself that he won't always want to sit on my lap. When he's 20 and off living by himself, I'll surely sit at my lonely table and fondly remember the days when I had a squirmy preschooler knocking roasted sweet potatoes off my plate.
  
• Friendly neighbors. After a year of anonymous apartment life, it's a little weird to be in a neighborhood again. So far everyone has been welcoming and friendly. (Not Southern friendly, though. No one brought us any chicken and dumplings yet. That literally happened in Memphis!) But one neighbor did mow our lawn for us when it was turning into a jungle and we hadn't got a lawn mower yet, and another brought us some cookies and gave this kids a wading pool. It was strange, though, to hear one neighbor speak fondly about the former occupants of our house since we only know them as the persnickety sellers who refused to give us any repair credits or concessions...
  
• New amenities. We're just a few minutes from Aldi, a grocery store I grew to love in Memphis. We also have a Food4Less nearby which is a Kroger brand store, so they have all the regular Kroger products at lower prices. Also we are by a gas station that accepts credit cards for the same per/gal cost as Arco where you have to pay cash. The kids are excited that there's a McDonald's with a PlayPlace just a few blocks away.
  
• Windows that open. This house has tons of windows, and we love it! We can get a nice breeze in the mornings and evenings that means we don't have to use our air conditioner as much. Plus it's just nice to be able to see what's going on out in the world. I especially enjoy this view of palm trees from the kitchen window.

Life is good in Pasadena! Stop by and see us if you're in the area. Or heck, plan a trip to the area and stay in our play room/guest room! I promise to pick up all the Legos before you get here :)

Pause, Reflect, Move

I like to take some time to reflect on one place before I leave it. We're gearing up to move into our new house in just about two weeks, so the time is ripe!

Apartment living in Pasadena: Pros

• On-site professional maintenance team that fixes all my problems. From a dripping sink to a malfunctioning A/C unit, help was just an email away. I didn't have to search for the appropriate service tech online, read reviews, get estimates, or pay any bills. It has been awesome and I know I'm going to miss this feature as a homeowner.
  
• Location - in the heart of it all. We are within walking distance of more amenities here than we ever could take advantage of. If our kids were more, hmm, refined in their dining choices, we would have really enjoyed all these restaurants. As it is, we definitely visited all the ones that serve pizza and/or French fries :) It's also been nice to be so centrally located for public transportation, both for DF's commute and for general traveling needs.
  
• Balcony. Although it's kind of annoying to hear the train crossing dining at all hours of the day and night, the kids have LOVED their front-row view of the train tracks. Also, it's relatively bug-free. We never get mosquito bites here. An occasional fly sneaks in the apartment, but that's about it.

Apartment living: Cons

• Fire alarms. Oh my word, the fire alarms. For awhile we had a faulty sensor in our building and the alarm was going off at least once a day. Not cool, people.
  
• Trains. Sometimes the crossing malfunctions and dings for three hours straight. Again, not cool.
  
• The mile-long walk from the garage to apartment door. Ok, it's not a mile but it sure feels like it sometimes, like today when the boys fell asleep in the van and then wanted me to carry them home. I am pumped to have a garage that's right in the backyard in our new place. Maybe 30 feet, door to door. I can totally handle that. And if the kids are asleep, it would be fine to leave one of them snoozing in the vehicle while taking the other one inside. 

Our new house is just about 2 miles away from our current apartment, so we'll still be able to take advantage of everything Pasadena has to offer. Short moves are the best!

Moving Will Solve All My Problems

With our home purchase set to close later this week (God willing/si Dios quiere/inshallah), I'm feeling anxious, reflective, and hopeful. I've moved a lot in life. It tends to stir up a mixture of emotions/perspectives, but one that I've noticed most often is totally misplaced optimism about changes that will result.

Example: When we moved from Seattle to Memphis (in 2013) I was sure that I would break my addiction to Cheetos. Why? I thought that because I'd be working from home, I'd have time to make myself more healthy snacks. LOL! Sure, I had time, but I had no motivation. Actually, I stopped eating Cheetos and all milk products not long after arriving in California last year because my body just wouldn't let me eat dairy anymore. That wasn't my plan, but it's how life turned out.

And now in 2018, I've pretty much convinced myself that as soon as we move from an apartment to house here in Pasadena, our lives are going to completely change for the better. Here are some of my hopes and dreams.

• We are going to have a dining room table where my children will sit and eat their meals. We will all eat together as a family. I will have a weekly menu board and cook/meal plan tasty dinners that all 4 family members will like.
  
• Of course I will no longer be crouching on the floor next to the couch feeding the children bites of peanut butter bagel for breakfast while they watch Octonauts.
  
• I will create an amazingly functional organization system for the new playroom. Our home will no longer be strewn with toys in every corner of every room. My children will pick up their toys. (Confession: I cracked myself up by typing that last sentence!)
  
• My children will play in the backyard with minimal supervision giving me copious amounts of free time to implement all of my above plans. They will explore and get dirty but not seriously injure/maim themselves while doing so.

Realistic expectations? Probably not. But a girl can dream...

Where to Be Rich in LA

House hunting brings out the demographer/sociologist in me. I haven't lived here long enough to have a total handle on what are the "good" and "bad" areas, but I'm starting to get some ideas.

(I apologize in advance for all the feathers I'm about to ruffle.)

Areas that are good tend to have:

• Rich people
• White people
• Maybe Asian people
• "Good" schools as defined by a score of 8+ on Great Schools
• Well-funded public services
• Crime that is not overt

Areas that are bad tend to have:

• Poor people
• Brown people
• Black people
• Asian people who aren't integrated into mainstream American culture
• "Bad" schools (scores 1-3)
• Poorly funded public services
• Visible crime, graffiti, gangs
• Noise and/or pollution

You know what I see as the main differences on these lists? Socioeconomic status and race. So if I ask myself, "Where should we live?" what I'm really wondering is, what kind of white people are we? Statistically speaking, our income puts us in the third quartile for Pasadena (between 50-75% of median). I feel awkward calling myself rich, but I think it might be true.

Then I see these lists like "Best Places to Raise a Family Around LA" which should be titled "Where Rich People Live." I mean seriously, #1 on the list is Manhattan Beach, where the average sales price of a three bedroom home is $1.8 million. So I guess my family is richer than we are poor, but we're not rich rich.

The point I'm trying to make here is that one can't just choose to be rich. In many cases, the deck is stacked against you from the start. And we can't keep using socioeconomic status as a proxy variable for everything in life. Which leads me to the following scatter plot:



(If that's not displaying properly on your device, or you'd like to see the supporting data, click here.)

What are we seeing in this chart? 
A correlation between a school's rating on Great Schools and the percentage of its student body that is low income, which means qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. (As an aside, that is really poor around here because there's no adjustment made to the calculations to factor in cost of living in your particular area within the lower 48 states.)

What are we not seeing?
A large portion of the not-low-income families in Pasadena that are not represented on this chart, because their children aren't enrolled in these schools.

Pasadena Unified School District has kind of a mixed reputation around here. In the 1970s, the district was ordered to bus students to end de-facto segregation, a bit of history I haven't found anyone too eager to talk about. As of 2016, only 55% of students living in PUSD boundaries attended public schools. The rest are in charter, private, home school, or transfer out of the district. At the same time, there are several schools with new magnet programs focused on STEM, Arts, and IB, and they also offer dual language options. I'm familiar with a group called Pasadena Education Network that seems to be doing good work towards promoting integrated schools. So overall, I'm observing some positive trajectory.

Where should I try to buy a house, then? (I mean, assuming we stay in Pasadena. We also have been looking around Glendale and Eagle Rock, which is a whole other ball of wax.) To complicate matters, PUSD offers open enrollment, meaning that if you don't want your student to attend your neighborhood school, you can go through a lottery system to obtain a seat for your child at a different school. So it doesn't even really matter, school-wise, where we buy because we can put the kids in a different school. We just have to give them a ride.

But you see that? How privileged am I that the need to provide transportation daily to/from a school a few miles away wouldn't even give me pause? We are a two parent family with only one of us working outside the home right now. We have the resources to pay for a vehicle, gas, and insurance. I'm not trying to work two minimum wage jobs just to keep food on the table here. And I have the mental bandwidth to think about all these things two years before my kids will even start kindergarten.

What a world we live in.

If you want to learn more about these topics, here are some resources I recommend:

• How America's Public Schools Keep Kids in Poverty (TED talk by Kandice Sumner)
• Follow Integrated Schools on Facebook
• "The Problem with Great Schools" inspired me to write this post

Home Shopping with Toddlers

In the past six weeks, we've taken our kids to some 40 open houses. And as far as I know, they haven't broken anything! They've picked a couple lemons without authorization (#socallife) and might have trampled a few flowers underfoot. They've tripped over too many uneven floors/unexpected steps to count. They are doorbell-ringing experts. And, they've learned to be on the lookout for cookies or other goodies up for grabs. 

In fact, they've been house hunting for so long they've even started playing "open house" at home. Really! They set up boxes on the floor, then one kid said, "ding dong, you have sign? Me come see you house?" The other one said, "no, too dirty, me vacuum first." LOL

Real estate in the Los Angeles area is expensive. Exorbitant. Some might even say unreasonable. And yet, we've decided to throw our hats into the ring and purchase here as well. 

Why, you might ask? I'll tell you. 

The rent is too damn high.

For realz, people! We decided that we might as well make a mortgage payment for as much as we're spending on rent. The other option would be to move from our (expensive) apartment to a slightly less expensive rental, but we still want to buy eventually and moving with two little people is no joke. (We just did it last year, you know!) So, we sold the condo we owned in Seattle and now we're ready to buy here. We're hoping that the market doesn't totally tank right after we make a purchase, but one never knows.

It is hard to believe how quickly properties get snatched up and how much they wind up selling for. We are finally ready to put in our first offer on a house in the next couple of days. I am not overly optimistic about our chances of winning the bidding war. It seems like everyone I ask around here put offers on 5-10 properties before they finally got one. Maybe this will just be our warm up offer. The house is pretty cool, though, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Things I've learned about real estate in California (perhaps in general):

• Be super skeptical of homes without many photos online
• "California basement" is a polite term for "den of spiders and rodents"
• You could hire 21 different types of professionals to inspect your property, if you so desired
• Always pan up on Google Street View to check for giant power lines overhead
• It's hard to thoroughly inspect a property during an open house when your children are running amok
• There are way too many factors to consider in the home buying process. It is overwhelming!
• People who write home descriptions like the words/phrases "exclusive," "rare," "in-demand," and "don't miss out"
• There is no point in describing your listing in the Glendale/Pasadena area as "close to shops, restaurants, and schools" because that literally describes every home around here, as long as by "close" you mean "within a couple miles"

Hopefully before too long, we'll have a new nest to feather. Until then, we'll keep perching here in our cozy apartment. (Actually, not cozy. That's a code word for tiny. I should describe this apartment as spacious and well-appointed, in the highly-sought-after city of Pasadena!) 

Not the Same, but Similar

Awhile back, I had the realization that my life completely changed when I had kids. (Yes, I know it seems obvious!) But when I wrote that previous post, the boys were one year old. They were walking, though still wobbly on their feet. They stuck EVERYTHING in their mouths. When I said that my life would "never be the same," I was envisioning a future where I hovered behind two small people forever, trying to catch them before they toppled over and bonked their heads while simultaneously removing all choking hazards from their line of sight.

Now that the kids are rapidly approaching their preschool years, well, life is changing again. I'm seeing some glimmers of hope for the future in which I am not always a human helicopter!

On Friday, we participated in the local festivities known as Art Night Pasadena. It was, briefly, not a disaster and even sort of enjoyable! We walked to a local restaurant for dinner. Then, we watched a dance performance at Lineage where the boys managed not to create a scene, even though they were super excited about all the different colors of lights shining in the studio. From there, we caught a shuttle bus over to Kidspace. The museum was really packed, but the boys did not totally freak out. When it was time to go, we wound up having to wait like 20 minutes for a shuttle back to our neck of the woods, but again the boys managed to keep it together. They loved riding the bus, too!

Ok, now that I've written it all out, it doesn't sound that exciting. Let me elaborate - at dinner, DF and I were actually able to eat our meals, and the boys also ate food (we didn't have to resort to the emergency peanut butter crackers in the diaper bag). At the dance studio, we all watched the dancers together - the boys sat in chairs, rather than running amok/climbing furniture. Now, pre-kids I wouldn't have chosen to go to a children's museum so that part of the night was different. But dinner and local entertainment? That's totally something DF and I would have done before our little guys came along!

So yes, my life is different now, but that doesn't mean it has to be COMPLETELY UNRECOGNIZABLE from my previous life. If I liked doing things before kids, chances are, I'll be able to find ways to incorporate them into our new reality as a family of four.

Hooray for things being different...and the same!

Six Months in SoCal

We arrived here in California just over six months ago. I thought I'd take the occasion to reflect on life here in my new state.

I loved it when we got here, and half a year later, I still love it! Perhaps I'm still in the "honeymoon" phase? We'll have to check back later to see how I'm feeling. What do I like about California? Glad you asked!

The Weather/Climate
I hate to be so cliché, but it's just lovely here. It's almost always sunny with a gentle breeze. We're currently going through a cold snap where it's been dipping down into the 30s at night and only hitting 60 for a high temperature, but I don't even mind because I know it'll be scorching hot in a few months. When it does get hot, it's not humid, so you can still, you know, breathe outside. There are hardly any mosquitoes either, and it cools down in the evenings so you can open your windows without inviting an insect invasion.

This is my first time living in an area that's so sunny. It is awesome! I really don't know how all the Californians who have moved to the PNW survive in the gray winters. Maybe they still have friends/family down here and escape to soak up some Vitamin D on the weekends.

Geography
Living in a region with mountains makes me smile. Sure, some days it's too smoggy to see them, but lately the full San Gabriel Range has been on display. And then there's the other foothills and such that I don't know the names of yet, but they are also scenic. Nearby us there is a place called the Arroyo, which as far as I can tell means a dry canyon. It's rugged and rocky and makes you feel like you've escaped the city when you go there.

And then, don't forget the beach! Depending on traffic, it's about 45-60 minutes for us to get to a beach. By LA standards, that's far away but by Memphis standards, it's awesome :)

I know people also talk about skiing/mountain activities here. We haven't ventured North/East yet, but when we do, I'll be sure to blog about it.

Activities
This part's a bit overwhelming, actually. In Memphis it was kind of straightforward. If you have little kids, you want a membership to the zoo, children's museum, and/or botanic garden. Around here, sheesh! There are about 1,000 options, it seems like! I mean, there are the classic big theme parks, like Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Knotts Berry Farm. You've got too many museums to count, zoos, aquariums, gardens, science centers, theaters, and I don't even know how many other choices of things to do. Plus since the weather is almost always nice, you can explore all the various parks and outdoor spaces. If you ever hear me saying I'm bored, that's just crazy talk. I could live here for the rest of my life and still not do everything.

Food/Dietary Options
Since arriving in CA, I've decided to go dairy-free. Although I didn't test as allergic to milk, I just feel so much better without dairy. It's been a pretty easy transition thanks to all of the vegan options around here, both in grocery stores and at restaurants. And if you ask the waitstaff, "Does that have dairy?" you don't get a strange look or anything. Meanwhile, in Memphis, I once got a total eye roll for ordering enchiladas with no cheese at a Mexican restaurant.

Speaking of Mexican food, taco trucks here are legit and delicious. There are so many different types of food available here that it's impossible to list them all. Ever had Indonesian bone broth? There's a place just a couple blocks away from us with a simmering vat full! I want to go out to eat all the time. But my children aren't very adventurous eaters, so sometimes we opt for take-out for the grownups and chicken nuggets for the kids...

Closer to Relatives
My parents and siblings all live in Oregon. It's really nice to be close to them - just a quick 2 hour flight, instead of a whole-day travel ordeal, and you don't have to change time zones!

Public Services
I'm just starting to learn about this topic, but I guess all those personal income tax funds we're paying to the state are getting used for stuff! I've been attending a free weekly parent education class offered at a local community college. They have 10 or 15 different classes going every week, all free! It's my understanding that a combo of state funding and private fundraising covers the cost. The class is like a preschool where parents and children are there together. So cool!

And now, for the things that have been harder to cope with...

Huge Metropolis
I can't really explain to you how gigantic the Los Angeles metro area is. Apparently it's the second-largest metro area in the country. There are like 60 cities in the region, depending on how you define "city." I'm always having to check Google Maps to see where places are, because I'll read a blog or something about a fun weekend activity only to find out it's down in Orange County (an hour+ away). Short of hanging a giant regional map on the wall and studying it daily, I don't know how I'll ever wrap my head around the megalopolis that is Los Angeles.

Tons of People
Remember all those things I listed above that I like about SoCal? Yeah, a bunch of other people also like those things, so they all want to live here, too. Traffic is intense. You really do have to plan your trips around traffic if you don't want to spend your whole life sitting on a freeway. And then when you go places and do things, a bunch of other people are also there at the same places wanting to do the same things. We went to the zoo on President's Day and it was packed to the gills! I have never been to a zoo that was so busy before. I suppose it being a school holiday, parents were looking for a way to entertain their kids, but still, we had to wait in the members line for like 10-15 minutes just to get through the front gate!

Cost of Living
Really, this one hasn't bothered me too much because I knew what we were getting into, but I feel compelled to mention it. It is certainly more expensive to live here than Memphis. It seems more expensive than Seattle, too, though we left that city nearly 5 years ago so my mental price list is probably outdated. The cost of housing around LA is shockingly high. We keep debating if we should buy a place here. Then we look at the prices and say, "it's got to be a bubble, right? It'll pop soon." But the prices just keep on rising...!