• You are currently browsing the archives for the castro valley category.

  • Archives

  • Categories:

Archive for the ‘castro valley’ Category


Holidays, 41st birthday, and friends

The end of September was a bit of a whirlwind. The Jewish high holy days always land around that time, I have my birthday, and at work we’re winding down from the busiest time of the year (especially true this year!). When we got back from Philadelphia, we immediately paused to observe Rosh Hashanah. We’re […]

Cake, cars, and work

As I mentioned in my previous post, we were sick a lot in August. But there were days here and there that weren’t so difficult. In the middle of the month, we were all doing a lot better and attended the wedding of our first au pair. She met her now husband right before the […]

Our weekend routine, car seats, and vaccines

Life with young kids is always changing. It feels like we struggle to plan anything more than a few months out because their preferences change, or we discover someone gets car sick, or some new COVID wave sweeps through. Still, we did manage to fall into a nice weekend routine these past few months that […]

Cooking together and a parade

Adam and I have been doing a lot of baking lately. Sometimes it’s making Challah or banana bread from scratch on a quiet afternoon, or blueberry muffins from a mix, or just taking pre-made cookie dough out of the refrigerator and dropping it on a baking pan. Along with art, this has been a really […]

Holidays and trains in February

2022 is already a strange year. January felt like a very long month, and February flew by. I’m certain this is an artifact of just how busy we’ve been, but it’s been a little surreal. With our continued pandemic-related caution around childcare and MJ and I still not doing indoor dining, Valentine’s Day this year […]

Halloween 2021

Halloween is certainly different when you have kids in your life. And different again during a pandemic! First, there’s decorations. I am not a crafty person and decorating for holidays was never really my thing. But I now have a toddler who loves making art, and holidays are the perfect inspiration. Plus, when I was […]

Seasonal smoke, high holidays, and getting back outside

We were having a delightful summer. Back yard tidied up enough to play outside. Regular cadence of farmer’s market on Saturday morning and playground on Sunday morning. Every weekend we’d also look up local garage/yard sales to walk to. Then the smoke started to roll in on August 18th. Our cars and outdoor furnishings quickly […]

Chill July

July was a pretty chill month. The wildfires haven’t started impacting us yet, work has been pretty typical, and we’ve spent our weekends developing a nice routine of going to the farmer’s market on Saturday and the park on Sunday. I’ve been baby-wearing Aaron while at the park so I can keep up with Adam, […]

Another pandemic 4th of July weekend

We traditionally spent the 4th of July visiting our friends and family in Philadelphia. It was a convenient point in the summer to visit, and we enjoyed spending the BBQ and fireworks holiday in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Of course, the pandemic paused that tradition last year, and this year […]

Food, art, furniture, and outdoor markets

It’s inevitable that I’m tired when I write these blog posts lately. I’m usually carving out a few moments before bed or after I wrap up work for the day. Working full time, then taking the kids, and making sure our household stays on track is exhausting. I know it’ll get easier after this first […]