And the ladder won.

For anyone who’s ever done DIY house maintenance, we have at least some awareness that it can be dangerous to work with power tools. Saws, drills, electricity, hammers, nails are all potential injury makers. So, too, are ladders. …

Taking a road cruise during a pandemic provides an insight into other states in ways that national news cannot touch. I’ve been fortunate enough to be fully vaccinated and to make my way out west twice this year. …

Deliberately downsizing to 192 square feet.

As a child, I shared a room with my mom. As a teenager, I had my own bedroom and bathroom. As I got older, I shared a room and bathroom with roommates. Then my husband. We added children to the mix, then more roommates.

…

What really matters?

Children feel a surprising amount of pressure to know what they are good at or what they want to do when they grow up. I know that I did. …

But I’m okay.

I couldn’t tell you the exact moment, the specific instance, when I realized that I was losing hope for the human race. There are far too many occasions that flash through my memory.

Mostly, though, it comes down to today.

Every day, I woke up with a…

Don’t worry, everyone is quarantining.

In July 2020, my husband and I moved from a house to an apartment.

We’d made the decision to put the money from our house sale into a more national bank. Even before Covid, managing our banking needs while out of town was difficult. …

As of 2021, in the US, a family of four making under $27,000 is considered to be at the poverty level. (That’s two parents working full-time, making around 6.49 an hour before taxes.) The average rent is $1098. That leaves roughly $13,500 for that family to pay for food, clothing…