Growing up, my family and I spent hours around my grandparents’ round kitchen table, overlooking Lake Minnetonka. We played endless games of...
editor’s note
Welcome to the August/September 2025 Issue
“Focus on capabilities instead of limitations.” This sounds like a phrase that could grace a cheesy inspirational poster, but it’s actually a theme...
Welcome to the June/July 2025 Issue
I remember vividly the day my oldest daughter realized that I was the one who picked her name. She was about 3 years old, and we were driving in the...
Welcome to the April/May 2025 Issue
This is nothing I’m proud of, but my gardening style could best be described as “set it and forget it.” Only the strong survive in my yard where I...
Welcome to the February/March 2025 Issue
Sixteen years ago this June, my husband and I planned our ideal wedding. We wanted a small, outdoor ceremony in a garden, followed by a reception in...
Welcome to the December 2024/January 2025 Issue
We’re gearing up for the season of giving, but these past few months I’ve had to focus my energy on receiving. A running injury had me negotiating...
Welcome to the October/November 2024 Issue
The proverb says necessity is the mother of invention, but as many moms can attest, motherhood makes creativity and invention a necessity. As I put...
Welcome to the August/September 2024 Issue
A few days ago, I was driving with my 12-year-old daughter when she asked me if I believed in magic. She paused for a moment and then said, “Never...
Welcome to the June/July 2024 Issue
One summer in high school, I had a job working at a bagel shop, making sandwiches and specialty coffee drinks for customers who often came in with...
Welcome to the April/May 2024 Issue
Confession: I have been threatening to take a sledgehammer to our living room wall for years. When we moved into our house almost 12 years ago, we...
Welcome to the February/March 2024 Issue
A year ago at this time, I was putting together the very first issue of this magazine and nervously anticipating its arrival in your mailbox. I was...
Welcome to the December/January 2023 Issue
I always go into the holiday season with a concrete gift-giving plan for my three kids. I try to buy each of them one thing they want, something...
Welcome to the October/November 2023 Issue
Despite all of the elaborate holiday plans I start dreaming up this time of year, some of my best memories of family are just sitting around the...
Welcome to the August/September Issue
I graduated from college the spring after the World Trade Towers collapsed and went to work at a daily newspaper in central Minnesota. In my first...
Welcome to the June/July 2023 Issue
Maybe I’m doing summer wrong, but I haven’t experienced “the lazy days of summer” since having kids. When they were young, there was nothing lazy...
Welcome to the April/May 2023 Issue
As a lifelong Minnesotan, I can survive a Minnesota winter with the best of them. I’ve found that getting outside for a bit each day is key: I love...
Welcome to the February/March 2023 Issue
When my husband, 6-month-old daughter and I moved “south of the river” from Minneapolis about 10 years ago, we were looking for one thing: A shorter...
