Author: Lanette Hansen

It’s family reunion season, and mine was earlier this month. My family is from outside Dodgeville, in a place called Linden. We have a bunch of family farms in the area, and this year we had the reunion at my cousin Mike’s house. He and his family live in the house that belonged to my […]

Wednesday nights are pretty special on the east side of Madison, where my family and I live. The Capitol View Farmers Market has morphed into this fantastic weekly community festival. It’s in the space across the street from the Great Dane on Cottage Grove Road. The MSCR Fit to Go van is there with tons […]

So . . . it happened.  The Her Madison 5K was last weekend, and without a ton of training, I was happy to be reminded that my body could still run 3.1 miles pretty easily. I was honestly pretty worried. My running has been practically non-existent since becoming a mom, and the last thing I […]

If your family is anything like mine, you can start to feel like a short-order cook. And if you’re one of those people who is able to put her foot down and make your kids eat whatever you make for dinner, good on you. I’m not. I’ve got a two-year-old who will eat anything, so […]

The end of the school year is coming up, and I will be so sad to hug Everett’s teacher, Mrs. Lessner, goodbye for the last time—as will Everett. What an amazing woman! Her classroom aide, Miss Ellen, is equally wonderful. She and Everett have developed quite a sweet relationship, and he loves her very much. […]

May 8 through May 12 is Teacher Appreciation Week! And although I appreciate teachers and the insanely important work they do every single day, I’ll be making an extra effort this coming week. Personally, I remember so many of my teachers, and I loved most of them. My third-grade teacher, Mrs. Mary Franklin, made a […]

When you’re in the middle of your crazy life, it gets hard to reconnect with friends. In the last week, I’ve had the opportunity to catch up with a couple lifelong friends. The first was someone who has known me since we were in kindergarten. He’s going back to school and really wants to make […]

After being a pretty great runner in my prime (pre-kids), I haven’t run any real distance in quite a while. And now with my new “dark-and-early” work schedule, it’s really hard to find the time.  But I signed up for a 5K that’s up in June.  It’s the Her Madison 5K, and I’m really looking […]

Eight years ago, I became an auntie for the first time. Carter Everett Kolman was born and became the love of my life even before he took his first breath.  At 20 weeks along, my sister and brother-in-law found out that Carter had a very serious heart defect along with a couple other complications. In […]

If your house has been nailed by a bug, you’re definitely not alone. My sister just sent me a picture of four medicine bottles all lined up. Each of them was an antibiotic for a different member of the family. Four out of the five of them are on medicine, for pneumonia, for a double […]