a few words from katie

I live in Santa Fe with my husband, two young daughters, and assorted animals. I'm a magazine writer who worked for many years at Outside. In my spare time, I like to write short stories, run, ski, go on adventures, and play outside as much as possible with my family.

I met Elizabeth at a playground last winter. I was pregnant with my second daughter, and when I saw her, pushing her baby in a bucket swing while she talked on the phone and her two older boys entertained themselves—all three of them still in their PJs—I knew we'd be friends. I was starting to freak out about having another baby and I thought, if she can look this relaxed with three kids in pajamas and half a foot of sloppy snow underfoot, then surely I should be able to handle two. I figured if I hung around her long enough, I might learn something.

Sure enough, Elizabeth's the most composed and compassionate mother I've ever met. And she's a writer! If it seemed too good to be true, it was—sort of. Last summer she and her husband moved back to St. Paul. After she left, we started this blog as a kind of virtual lifeline between NM and MN: a place to post our writing, figure out how to balance our creative, writing lives with our mothering lives, and coax each other back to sanity when we're about to lose our minds.

I didn't fully appreciate it that first day in the playground, but Elizabeth's one of the world's best phone-talkers. She can carry on an animated, completely focused conversation for hours while feeding babies, prowling the aisles of Target with crying toddlers, and getting the dog groomed. I, on the other hand, am easily distracted. I have yet to master the art of keeping my cool while small children clamor all over me. I screen my calls compulsively, and have been known to hang up in mid-sentence when a certain small child so much looks in my direction. If Elizabeth and I were going to stay friends across 1,300 miles, I knew we'd have to find an alternate means of communication. 

Ta-da, this blog!