Chuck Grimmett

Charlie’s new skills, cooler weather, cooking outside, planting for autumn, aging kindly, reading suggestions, digital garden updates, and project ideas.

I didn’t write a post last week, so I’m doing a double post this week. I had a 26 week streak, but I knew I’d miss one eventually. Trying out the newish Table of Contents block in this post! Charlie Charlie turned one this past week. It is incredible to think about how much he […]

We went to a cookout at our friends’ place on Friday and figured that Charlie would get sleepy around 8pm and we would head home then. 8pm came and went, and Charlie was still the life of the party, playing with three dogs and crawling around to everyone there, so we decided to see how […]

Charlie has been very active this week, crawling and exploring as much as he can. He is fast! So curious, too. One of our goals is to keep fostering that natural curiosity as much as we can. I brush his hair every morning before daycare and he started grabbing the brush and trying to brush […]

A week of trying to get back to normal after Charlie and I were sick last week. Lots of playing catch up, but I’m glad to report that Charlie went back to daycare and Amanda and I got back on normal work schedules. A couple things I’ve been trying to get back to doing each […]

Charlie’s illness ended up getting worse early this week, despite looking like it was clearing up over last weekend, so it was another week of keeping a sick baby home from daycare while we tried to work. The doctor said that the poor guy had a double ear infection. Then I caught whatever caused his […]

Two anniversaries this week: Amanda and I have been married for 9 years and this blog is 14 years old. Both anniversaries are actually on the same day! I’m incredibly thankful to have Amanda as my partner in life, though all of its ups and downs. I’m also Charlie started daycare this week and made […]

It was a long, tiring week. Despite that, I’m feeling really thankful and lucky this week. Both Amanda and I have good jobs. We have a sweet, curious little boy. It is my first Father’s Day as a father. Spending the day going for a long family walk, holding Charlie while he naps, and hanging […]

As I write this on Sunday morning, Charlie is napping on me. I’m sitting in that one Ikea chair everyone seems to have, Charlie’s head is on my shoulder, he is wrapped up in a blanket, and my laptop is perched on a pillow on my lap. Some sweet Charlie vignettes from this week: Having […]

Transitions are hard. I went back to work this week after four months of parental leave. The hardest parts were Charlie crying when I had to hand him over to the nanny and go to work and watching him play through my office door but needing to work instead of hanging out with him. I […]

This was my last full week on paternity leave. I return to work next week. I snuggled Charlie as much as I could, including holding him for more naps instead of putting him in his crib like usual. It was a bit of a stressful week for all of us in the Grimmett house, and […]

Every week I think I did nothing, then surprise myself with how much I did once I finish this post. Spent lots of time outside this week. It seems like we had about a week of Spring, then jumped directly to Summer. It was in the mid 90s (Fahrenheit) all weekend, which is just too […]

Charlie is learning how to walk by slowly holding on to and pushing a small stool and stepping along with it. He is making great progress! He’s been trying so hard and we are very proud of him. Charlie seems to like chicken shawarma and pickled turnips. That’s my boy. The thing that has the […]

This week went by quickly. Lots of rain and time indoors. I didn’t do much during the week except take care of Charlie, cook, do dishes, and read. I did make up for that a bit this weekend by mowing, weedeating, and sawing and splitting some wood with my friend Jon that my neighbor let […]

Tough week. All three of us had colds the beginning half of the week (the first for Amanda and me since before COVID), then Charlie started teething again the latter half of the week. Seasonal allergies hit me this week, too. Nevertheless, some highlights: Caught up with Jeremy Felt, which is always nice. I now […]

New sprouts in the garden: Radishes, borage, calendula, bee balm, and more poppies. In the yard, wild violets are popping up and the forsythia and rhododendron look great. Black-eyed Susan volunteers came up all along the fence, self-seeded from the neighbor’s flowerbed on the other side. I’m going to leave them and weed around them. […]

Our radishes sprouted! We discovered that Charlie really likes oranges. He also discovered how to pull himself up to standing this week! I started a new batch of orange bitters, trying to improve upon the first batch I made a few years ago: Doubled the amount of orange peel Added more bitter botanicals (wild cherry […]