The boys are visiting grandparents this week. So, it's just been one child at home. WOW! So different. I'm anxious to have all my kids back home – but I'm not looking forward to the mess that comes with all three kids.

Last month I took the plunge and hired a housecleaning service. I gave it to Fritz for Fathers Day. Ha! Actually, first: I sat down at my blog and typed (for the 10th time about how I was *thinking* of hiring a housecleaner. Then I thought to myself: stop talking about it and just do it.

And I did.

So, now we join the somewhat ridiculous ranks people of cleaning for the cleaners. Due to the boys being gone all week, the prep only took, like, 45 minutes this week. But the first week of service, we spent a whole day cleaning for the cleaners. We will see how this goes. Hopefully it will at least (somewhat) lower the level of stress this summer. Because it is definitely stressful around here.

Probably: May was a bad month to start a new job. Have I already mentioned that? Probably.

I recently planned to put pegs in a grid in Trixie's room to hang up a few of her 300 accessories. Honestly, she has more bags and hats and what-nots than me. Some family members find it irresistible to visit without bringing her another accessory. Then I got cheap and lazy about my peg grid. I used NAILS instead of pegs. It still looks pretty cute, I think. And, did I mention, cheaper?

We visited Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons this last month – it was only for about 4 days – way too fast, we will certainly need to return! We saw all the major touristy things. Yet I have the feeling there is a whole hidden Yellowstone to be discovered. The kids did pretty well with traveling so far and camping and etc. We have finally reached that golden age that everyone talks about, I suppose: where you can do things with the kids, and they can keep up, and they're not too cool to be spending time with us.

We also got to visit my brother and see his almost-finished kitchen remodel in Rhode Island. You may notice there is still protective wrapping on his appliances. And painter tape instead of cabinet handles. Good move, brother: show the kitchen to your niece and nephews BEFORE you remove the wrap. Or, you know, just leave it on there forever, like people did in the 60s and 70s with their plastic sofa covers in The Parlor. Well, honestly: the kitchen is super cool. Now, not only do I want to go live in the woods AND do yoga on a red mat in my kitchen, but I would ALSO like some fancy cabinets and shrink-wrapped appliances just like this.

Successful Teams

Originally published on my other blog.

One of the lessons I've taken away from the last few years of my life is that I can't – and I don't want to – do everything. Success comes as collaboration for me, because I have some weaknesses: I tend towards shy and awkward. I'm not as direct as I sometimes need to be. I'm a sharp thinker and problem solver, but then, people don't necessarily open up to me about their problems because of my natural disposition towards, um, both shyness and sharpness. Some things I can change and sway a bit, somethings I can get better at...but I can't be good at everything. In fact, I am always going to suck at some things. Small talk comes to mind.

Recently, I've been a little preoccupied with the idea of teams and collaboration and the question of: What makes a great team? I've seen and been part of some really crappy teams in the past year. For much of my life, I guess, I was fortunate to be on good teams. Or maybe I was so absorbed with myself and my own self-improvement that I didn't spend much time thinking about the connections around me. So when the tables turned, and I either found myself on really bad teams (or started noticing people besides myself), I started thinking A LOT about group dynamics.

This book: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, by Daniel Coyle, is amazing. The name is slightly off from the topic of the book. This is NOT a book about culture, this is a book about groupsand teams. Subsequently, I forget the title ALL THE TIME. I finally took a photo of the cover. And now, when I start talking about the book, I grab my phone and show the person I am talking to the cover of the book and say, "Read this! It's great."

The secret of successful groups or teams, per the The Culture Code, are feeling connected, sharing a future, and feeling safe. These seem like no-brainers, and yet, at the same time, given the speed of turnover in the corporate world in the last 20 years, one can see how it would be really difficult for many employees to feel affirmative about sharing a future and their safety in their current work situation. Those negative feelings undermine their ability to be part of a really successful team.

The book is a great resource for thinking about how to correct course. I plan to purchase my own copy: highlight it, dog-ear it, and keep it next to my desk at work – it was that good.

Cherries and Pits

This past week we added two new family members of the feline variety.

The kids are basically lining up to play with them, so there's been a moment or two in which I've thought, "We should have adopted THREE kittens!" But no. I think two will be fine.

This Father's Day artwork gift, miraculously, made it off the floor and onto the wall. I don't know how it happened, exactly, but I think there was some re-origami-ing involved.

Fritz and I have recently been watching this Spanish show on Netflix. I like it. I like the Spanish title, La Casa de Papel, so much that I haven't bothered to learn the English translated name. The English name is something like: The Heist? If you watch it, you will quickly understand why La Casa de Papel is a MUCH BETTER name.

The kids have somehow figured out how to log on to the computer (which acts as our television) without the password. I don't know how they did it. Noah told me, "We just use ctrl shift F." HUH? That makes no sense to me. I guess I have to look into it. In the meantime, changing the password worked to lock them out (again). And Fritz left them this note:

On the fourth, Mattais, Trixie and I picked cherries at my boss's house. She was kind enough to let us pick a lot AND she fed us a lovely gluten free waffle breakfast. At home, I started pitting the cherries and immediately realized just how much work it was going to be. I still made both a cherry (German) cheesecake and cherry preserves on the 4th, so all the pitting was very much worth it.