Blog | Brittany L. Bergman

Why I Get Up Before the Rest of My Family

Despite the fact that I have a gentle alarm—chimes that begin low and slow and gradually get louder—waking up at 5:15 a.m. is still not something I would describe as pleasant or peaceful. Nevertheless, every weekday my alarm goes off at this time. I do a quick social media check while lying in bed (a habit I know I need to kick) before rolling my pregnant self out of bed. I brush my teeth while listening to NPR’s Up First, put on my favorite sweater and creep down the stairs as quietly as possible. It’s the dead of winter here in… Read More

Someday

Feb 13 Leave a Comment

Selah and I are sitting on the couch watching The Nutcracker—the 1993 version of the ballet, starring Macaulay Culkin (sans aftershave). Well, she’s watching, and I’m reading China Rich Girlfriend. Selah loves all things ballet—the dresses, the twirling, the shoes tied up with satin ribbons. Several dancers begin leaping across the screen in an enchanted forest. They’re wearing white tutus and embroidered bodices and puffy sleeves. Tiny tiaras encircle their perfect ballerina buns. Selah, without taking her eyes off the TV, asks me, “I do that someday?” I look up from my book. “Do what, baby?” “I dance like that… Read More

Armchair Chats // Life with a Threenager

Feb 1 Leave a Comment

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. It’s official, friends: I have a threenager. Selah was a tough baby, an even tougher one-year-old, and then two was . . . surprisingly easy. (Although let’s be real, I use the word easy very, very loosely. There’s nothing easy about parenting toddlers.) I think a big part of this is because she finally started talking after a bit of a delay, and it made us both feel less frustrated and… Read More

10 Personal Policies that Make My Life Simpler

Jan 23 Leave a Comment

Last spring I completed my third Whole 30, and while the first two I did felt super restrictive, this one actually felt freeing. So of course I wondered, Why is that? Before this Whole 30, I hadn’t felt totally in control of my eating habits. I used to be a lot more disciplined about saying no to treats in the middle of the week and saving my indulgences for the weekends. For the past couple of years, though, I’ve struggled to walk by the break room at work without picking up a snack—even a snack I didn’t particularly care for—just because… Read More

Freedom from My Own Expectations

Jan 15 Leave a Comment

Four years ago, I sat on the floor of the first home I had shared with my husband, ruthlessly sorting my collection of classroom materials. In one pile I stacked my most beloved read-aloud books, which I planned to keep for the baby who was growing in my belly. I boxed up the still-usable-but-unneeded resources that I could pass along to other teachers. Finally, I tossed aside the materials that were beyond repair. I had recently switched careers from education to publishing. It was a thrilling and hard-won change after feeling lost and burned out only a few years into… Read More

Armchair Chats // Wrapping Up 2018

Jan 8 Leave a Comment

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Warm holiday wishes to you, whatever and however you celebrated! As I mentioned in last month’s Armchair Chat, my family’s holiday season was truncated with a split down the middle: we started decorating and celebrating the week before Thanksgiving, Dan and I traveled without Selah the second week of December, then we had two-ish weeks of Christmas and New Year’s festivities (see also: no… Read More

Armchair Chats // The Collective Weight of Individual Moments

Dec 6 Leave a Comment

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. I try to publish these Armchair Chats during the last week of the month, but I’m still moving at a pretty slow pace thanks to the sweet baby who is zapping my energy. So not only is this post a week late, but it’s actually covering two months because I never got around to writing an update for October. These past two months saw a resolution in morning sickness… Read More

Reframing Everyday Moments as Adventures

Nov 28 Leave a Comment

Thank you Maxi-Cosi for sponsoring this post. Keep your little adventurers comfy, safe & stylish with the Maxi-Cosi Magellan™ Max 5-in-1 Convertible Car Seat! Even though summer is my fourth favorite season, I was determined to make summer 2018 my family’s best one yet. I had grand visions for how these precious months would play out: trips to the lake twice a month, a road trip up to Lake Geneva, lots of trips to the pool. But as I mentioned in a previous post, the summer I envisioned was not quite the summer I got. Between recovering from a miscarriage… Read More