I read this yearly recap on All & Sundry’s blog a couple years ago, and have been doing it every year since.   1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before? I planned ahead with a meal plan for the week, bought the groceries for said meals, and then cooked accordingly each night. Sad to say that in my 38 years, this is the first time I’ve dabbled in meal planning instead of trying to figure out what to make every evening at 5pm. I’m hoping to do more of it in the coming . . .

I’m not sure I’m really qualified to comment on the best books of the year since I haven’t read that many. Perhaps this should be called “My favorite reads.” But here are some of the books I read this year that I really enjoyed and recommend. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple – This quirky, clever novel was a page-turning collection of correspondence seeking to discover why an anxious housewife disappeared. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman – This beautiful novel tells the . . .

Jafta turns 9 today! It's hard to believe my oldest is nine. Why does that seem so big? We are currently visiting my family in Florida, so we had a birthday party for him before we left. He has been begging to have a GameTruck party ever since he learned that it was A Thing, and Skylanders offered to host a GameTruck party with their new Swap Force game. He was over the moon about the idea. When we pulled up to our house the day of the party and saw the truck in the driveway, he screamed in . . .

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