my city life 

with Jami Nato

Last week, I got my Kemper Art Challenge package in the mail and dumped out all the random contents on the dining room table: pipe cleaners, fabric, paper, scissors, and glue— just to name a few. On the postcard of instructions it contained a loose theme, of which was something to the extent of animals. Listen, I don’t pretend to be an artist or a person who cares much for details! “Easy enough,” I thought. I asked my teenage son to make me an origami head of any animal of his...

The quarantine had us itching to get out and try something new for date night. Now , I’m embarrassed to admit, I have never been on a Boulevard tour even though I’ve lived in KC for the majority of my life. WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG? The place is gorgeous, the tour was so interesting, and the tasting was great— so says my husband on that last part. You will laugh, but I don’t like beer. This made the tasting and tour all the more interesting for me. I didn’t know making beer was such an...

This spring started out rough. We complained about having to be with our kids and being locked down while seeing none of our friends. I was the first of these complainers, I'll admit. But, there came a turn of events: we started to intentionally look at this time as a gift and enjoy it with the people right in front of us: Our family, our neighbors, and our close friends.If you follow me on the socials, you know I have long discussed the importance of finding your quarantine bubble and sticking...

Dear Reader,Question: If you hypothetically dropped your phone in the lake, stone cold sober on a Friday morning, can’t get a replacement till Monday, maybe Tuesday, and are hosting 3 other couples* the entire time… what would you do? (*these are families we decided to quarantine with intentionally during Covid)Answer: Enjoy it without looking at your phone constantly, that’s what you’d do. There would be no Facebook fights, text messages would be responded to hours and hours later. There...