11.29.2024 I called my mom this morning, shortly after I woke up. I was sitting on my couch in my pajamas drinking coffee. I caught her right before she was about to take a shower. For the record, I offered to call her later if it wasn’t a good time to talk, but she said no, and we chatted. I love that she was in her pajamas too. I didn’t ask if she was drinking coffee or not, but in my mind she was sitting on her couch with a cup of coffee as well. It was almost as good as b

11.18.2024 Sometime last spring, in a group chat with some college friends, someone posed a question to the group about everyone’s coffee names. If we were to order coffee by a name other than our own, what would it be? What name would we want to answer to if a barista were to call it out loud? While this was really just a fun hypothetical question, I (in typical ‘me’ fashion) overthought my answer. I actually pondered it for several days. Here’s the thing. The name Karen has

11.9.2024 I had dinner with my friends, the Gonzalezes, tonight. I’ve been friends with this dear family for over 20 years now, but they’ve been very forthright about letting me know that I’m not so much a friend as I am a part of their family. That alone is a huge blessing and one that I’m grateful for over and over and over again. I have a no-pressure standing invitation to Saturday night dinner and game night at their house every week. I don’t show up every single Saturday

11.30.2023 Today was a day for the books. My feet are sore, but my heart is oh, so full. Our morning started in Rockefeller Center. If you’re gonna kick off a Christmas in New York tour, this is clearly the way to do it. The tree, the angels, the skating rink – heck, even the crowds – it was all magical. We walked around and took pictures and gazed at the iconic tree. It was perfect. Next up was a short walk to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes in their Christmas Spe

11.22.2023 I’m in charge of potatoes and a fruit salad for Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle's house tomorrow, so I spent this afternoon grocery shopping and prepping for tomorrow’s festivities. I decided to make my family’s famous orange salad and my grandma’s holiday potato dish. The orange salad was a no brainer. It is a staple at family functions – both on my mom’s side of the family as well as my dad’s. It’s my mom’s recipe and has been made for holidays, graduations, sh

11.19.2023 I called my mom tonight. We’d texted a few times over the past couple of days, and I knew she was wondering if my cough was gone and if I was feeling better heading into a new week. I intended to talk for just a minute or two – just to assure her that my cold was almost gone and that all was well. But, before I knew it, almost an hour had passed. This is not surprising. It happens all the time. Tonight as we talked we got caught up on all the things – big and small

11.25.2022 Tonight my parents and I watched the movie White Christmas. For any of you who have not had the pleasure of watching it before, White Christmas is an old movie musical starring Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. It came out in 1954 (I googled that) and it’s a story about two Army veterans turned performers. They meet two sisters (also performers) and together they work to save a bed and breakfast that their old general owns. It’s got music and dancing and romance an

11.24.2022 When I first sat down to write tonight, I got a little stressed. I actually put my laptop away and scrolled on Instagram for an hour (cuz that always helps everything, right?) before opening it back up again. Why the stress? Because I was having trouble deciding what to write about tonight. Typically, when I reflect back on my day there’s something particular that pops out as an obvious blessing to write about. Today, not so much. Don’t read that wrong, though. It

11.23.2022 I took piano lessons for about 6 years when I was a kid. I’m so thankful for those lessons. I learned how to read music and discovered a creative outlet that I’d continue in one way or another throughout the rest of my life. I will admit, though, that I wasn’t always the best piano practicer. I’d go in spurts of being super motivated and then super unmotivated and my practice time would follow suit. When I’d get frustrated at my lack of progress my very kind piano

11/28/21 I called my mom three times today. Two of those calls were because I needed her to talk me through making vegetable soup. Then, I called her tonight on my way home from church. And I called her yesterday. And Wednesday. And the other day driving to work. And … and … and. For those of you who have had the pleasure of meeting my mom , you can attest to the fact that she’s awesome. She’s kind and loving and helpful and nurturing and faith-filled and on and on and on. Sh

11/25/21 Aunt Diane and I have the best tradition on Thanksgiving morning. We watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade while drinking apple cider mimosas in our pajamas. The pajamas are essential in this tradition, so I drove over to her house this morning in my jammies and slippers. This year I donned my homemade turkey hat for an extra bit of whimsy. We watched the parade and chatted while other members of her household watched football pregame shows or slept. We’ve done t

11.11.2021 My cousin Jared and his family are in town for the week. What a fun surprise to get his text asking if I wanted to meet up while they are here in Arizona. Of course I did, so this morning I met Jared, his wife Cara, and their three sweet boys for breakfast. I have lots of fun memories of spending time with Jared and his sister Amanda when we were kids. I loved when their family would come visit us in Wisconsin and when we’d visit them in Iowa. Amanda and Jared ar

11.27.2020 I’ve been thinking about my Uncle Steve a lot the past couple of days. He’s my mom’s youngest brother and a seriously, seriously cool uncle. I always looked forward to his visits when I was a kid. There were a number of years when he lived in Minneapolis and would come to visit us in Wisconsin for a long weekend or a holiday. I vividly remember a Thanksgiving or two with Uncle Steve around our table. We’d go bowling together as a family on the day after Thanksgivin

11.12.2020 This is one of my favorite pictures of the two of us. I’m guessing I was about 4 or 5 in the picture, which would mean Libby is about 6 or 7. We were playing bus. We clearly had to wear our fancy dress up clothes on the bus. As I recall, we played a lot of dress up in our childhood. Libby was my first and favorite playmate. I cherish the memories of building clothesline tents together, swinging and singing in the backyard, riding our bikes to Grass Island, recordin

11.10.2020 When your mom is an accomplished seamstress and you teach Kindergarten in the middle of a pandemic, she keeps you stocked in fun masks to wear to school each day. She’s got the design down pat, and she’s made me a ton with different fabrics and patterns. I’m not kidding you – I have masks with dog paws, dinosaurs, knights and dragons, stars, butterflies, kitties, Winnie the Pooh, fish, jungle animals, Paw Patrol characters, Peppa Pig, the ABCs, and on and on. Her C

11.2.2020 Tonight I attended a very touching memorial Mass in remembrance of those who have died this past year. It was lovely. One of these candles is for my Aunt Irene. She passed away at the very beginning of the pandemic and unfortunately we weren’t able to have a funeral to properly honor her. It felt nice to honor her tonight. I’m quite certain that she’s up in heaven right now discussing politics with my Grampy. I know that I’ve been abundantly blessed to have such ama

11.24.19 Sundays were pretty darn predictable growing up in the Wiebel household. Sunday mornings were for church. After church we'd have lunch together as a family. And then, right after lunch my dad would declare, "I'm going to go take a proper Sunday afternoon nap." Sometimes he'd add, "I think I'll try it out just this once -- see how it goes,” and we’d all smile or chuckle at the predictability of it all. Now, it's important to know that my dad is the hardest working per

11.17.19 This was a a super busy weekend. I was on the go much of yesterday and today, and although I had fun, I didn't get a lot accomplished. I have no regrets, but Sunday nights after busy weekends often leave me feeling a bit anxious and sad. Not this weekend, though. Cousin Meghan and her husband Whitney are in town, so we had Sunday night family dinner at my Aunt Diane 's house. I feel very, very blessed to have such a great family and I cherish time spent together. I

11/7/19 Well, kind of. That may be a bit of a stretch. Tomorrow is Western Round-up at school and I have a specific pair of pants that I want to wear with a specific flannel shirt and a specific pair of boots and a specific cowboy hat. Tonight, about 9:00, I realized that the shirt was missing a button and the pants were dirty. Yup - sounds about right. Procrastination at its finest. Now it's 10:15 and I just pulled the pants out of the dryer and realized that the pants' butt