February 2026
Looking Back
February was a lot of fun. We started the month off skiing and sledding in our friends’ backyard with the kids. I’m going to be honest, I thought that teaching Charlie to ski was going to be easier. It was not. I’m glad we did it in the backyard first though, because honestly, I would have been pretty bummed if we’d rented a bunch of equipment and planned a ski day for the whole family just to learn that she was still a little on the young side to actually do it… We followed the stay at our friends place with a family vacation to Lake Geneva, where the girls splashed at a water park and had the time of their lives getting pushed “really, really fast” by Daddy on the stroller through the expansive halls of the resort, much to the dismay of the hotel staff ;) Ronnie and I had our second-ever date night which started with dinner at this campy supper club we love and ended with me kicking his a** in Mario Kart, Pop-a-shot, Ski ball, and the claw game at the new Arcade bar that just opened by our house. Either Ronnie was having an off-day or I am getting better at games, because I kid you not, over the course of our 15 year relationship, I’ve beat him in all of 3 games probably… So I’m actually still riding a high.
That high was brought even higher as I got back some final deliverables from my photographer and design team for my cookbook! Seeing this project start to really take shape and come to life after three years of consistently trying new recipes, publishing them, and refining them is such a dream come true. I hope that anyone reading this who has a little dream on their big heart is inspired to just start. The book is in basically “prototype” form right now. We’ve got the branding and design elements selected, and now it’s just a matter of slowly but surely working through the photography and as the photos come back, getting them placed into our design templates. As that happens, I send them to the printer, and plug them into various parts of the book, laying out the book as I go. It’s a really fun exercise, very creative. And when I think of how loved I think this will be by the time my girls can read and cook, it just all feels really, really special and warm.
Looking Ahead
Trips and Traditions: Looking ahead to March, I’m feeling like there’s a lot going on: We’re in Scottsdale for play, then downtown Chicago for work, then we were supposed to be headed to Puerto Vallarta for more play but I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore, we will see where/how things shake out on that.
Family: March also means that Margaux girl is going to be six months old, that’s insane! She’s already sitting up on her own, and holding her own when big sis runs by or accidentally knocks into her. I can’t believe we are already ready to start introducing foods! That’s insane! I’ve got a ton of Serenity Kids packs that we did with Charlie to introduce her to some fabulous savory flavors. Wish us luck! If I remember correctly, it’s when you start introducing food that poop starts getting way stinkier… God bless!
Creative
Aside from My cookbook is starting to come together, which is so cool!
I ended up writing a children’s book this month, kind of out of nowhere.
Let me explain: We’ve been really struggling with Charlie’s separation anxiety at school drop off and at bedtime, and I simply couldn’t figure out what to do. A friend of mine recommended Nurtured First and so naturally I downloaded her courses on both topics. During a long, luxurious, Sunday Morning workout while listening to the parenting course, I was inspired by the advice from the various components of addressing separation anxiety and thought to myself — “It sounds like a book that explained a day in the life of Charlie (and Mommy and Daddy thinking about her when they are away) would solve pretty much all of our problems.” SO…
I grabbed some illustrations of our family that I had on hand from another creative project I had done
I jumped into Chat GPT and prompted it with the objective of the book I wanted to write: it had to 1) accomplish my goal of ending the separation anxiety, 2) be poetic (because I like rhyming children’s books), and 3) have proper illustrations of my family, Charlie’s school and teachers, etc.
With Chat’s storyline and initial illustrations approved, in short order I got us to print-ready copy and print ready images
I brought those images into Canva to fine tune and get the book fully laid out
Then I uploaded those to Artifact Uprising and printed 2 copies of each of the books I wrote (one for School Drop Off, one for Sleep)
In less than 2 hours I went from idea to books being shipped to my doorstep. F*cking wild.
If you’re feeling like you’re late to the game with AI, here’s my recommendation. When you have a challenge like I did, see how AI can help you with the solution. This was a use case for AI I never would have thought of, but voila! here we are. I am now…. A children’s book author?
The next question is kind of obvious, do I actually publish this book and monetize it? Well, right now this is just for our family, but I am really inspired by what could be possible in the future for myself and my kids having taken this concept end-to-end in <2 hours. That’s exciting stuff.
What are you most excited about right now?
From My Camera Roll
Becoming a mom x2 in this era of AI everything has really made me think about what memories I am willing to share publicly via social media, and which are really just meant for my family (and maybe our close friends).
I read somewhere that when you are struggling in your parenting journey with a tantrum or just like the hardness of it all, look at your baby’s hands and feet and it reminds you that they’re just a little one and to give them more patience. I started noticing all the photos I take of my girls' hands and feet. Those make me so happy.
As I pull back from sharing my family on social media, I’ve been leaning into putting more and more on my private family site where I can easily share with close friends and family, without fearing that I’m putting my kiddos in harm’s way. Here’s just a few of our core mems from the last month ♥
