After 10 years, the blog is live

For about ten years, the only people who got the good stuff were the ones sitting at our table. A friend would ask how we were making three kids and a remodeled house work. We would talk. They would leave with a couple of ideas, and the rest stayed in the kitchen until the next visit.

We’re Caitlin and Mads. The kids are a 10-year-old boy, an 8-year-old boy, and a 5-year-old girl who runs the house whether we like it or not. A few years ago we remodeled and moved Caitlin’s mom in, so it is six of us now — three generations, one kitchen. This is where we write down what we have learned raising the kids and building a home around all of us.

We have wanted a blog as a resource for parents, and for moms in particular, for a very long time. We kept meaning to start it. We kept not starting it. After Pickup is finally that outlet: the tricks we used to only share with friends and family, written the way we would tell you if you were here.

Some of those tricks we came up with because the house and the kids required them. A lot we picked up traveling, from friends and family, and from bloggers and YouTubers who were already writing this stuff down. Everything we post has been run in our own kitchen and hallway for at least a few weeks. The systems that stuck are here. The ones that didn’t, we will say so.

If it makes your Tuesday a little easier, a little more fun, or a little better organized, that is the whole point. Welcome. The blog is live.