Life with a Smile

This article is alternatively titled: T-minus fourteen days until Christmas - How are you holding up? Like everything else in the world right now, this holiday season is proving a mixed bag as we work our way through the Snyder Family 2020 Christmas Bucket List. First, let’s talk about how incredible gingerbread houses are. I… Continue reading A Tale of Gingerbread Houses and Panic Attacks

The holiday season is going to look different this year. With COVID raging and the temperatures dropping, we’re hunkering down, further curtailing our already-limited contact with others. One night, without really meaning to, I started cataloging all the things that weren’t going to happen this year. No holiday performances, like the Nutcracker or a show… Continue reading Making the Most of the Season

I put up our Christmas decorations five days before Thanksgiving. And I don’t mean that I snuck one string of lights or a snowman mug out to get a taste for the season. Oh, no. We didn’t hold back. Nativity scene on the mantle, stockings hanging below. Icicle lights in the windows. Light-up reindeer and… Continue reading Christmas Comes Early – I’m Not Sorry

At least once a day, my youngest daughter announces that she “needs a little personal space.” This request is usually made at the top of her lungs and is directed at her brother, who is typically standing less than six inches away from her at the time. There follows a flurry of activity, during which… Continue reading A Little Personal Space, Please!

Patience may be a virtue, but it is not one of my core strengths. I’m programmed for decisive action. I process and synthesize information quickly, make prompt decisions, and then stride purposefully in my chosen direction. I’ll be the first to admit that this approach to life is not without its missteps (cough, my marriage,… Continue reading Waiting Is Not Easy

We’re in the home stretch of the election season and I am feeling all the feelings. I am excited and terrified, energized and exhausted. I feel cautiously optimistic for the country, but also beaten down by the realities of campaigning for progressive platforms in a red state. I am torn between frantically wanting to do… Continue reading Canvasing with Kids

My youngest daughter’s birthday party was the first family social event to fall victim to the COVID-19 pandemic. A hundred years ago (way back in mid-March), she was scheduled to have an indoor pool party with her besties. Two days before the scheduled event, the KY schools shut down. We nixed the pool but met… Continue reading Birthdays Ala COVID

Over fall break, I cooked dinner over a fire of my own creation. I am officially ready for the zombie apocalypse – as long as the zombie apocalypse includes hot dogs and lighter fluid. It will, right? As you may have surmised from previous missives, I am not exactly an Eagle Scout when it comes… Continue reading Campfire Dreams

It was probably inevitable that my crazy dog would learn to climb the fence in the backyard. After all, Buddy Baudelaire had shown remarkable proficiency at tree-climbing, somehow managing to scrabble his way to a truly ridiculous height in a tree at the park. What chance did a puny four-foot chain link fence stand against… Continue reading When Mediocre Plans Go Badly

Sometimes you don’t notice a sound until it stops. Then, in the sudden quiet, you realize just how loud it had been – and how much the undercurrent had been getting under you skin. I’m not a fan of background noise. My brain gets overloaded by superfluous auditory input. I don’t like having music on… Continue reading Turning Down the Background Noise