Agoura Hills Mom for Sale

May 22, 2022 by 1 Comment

Back in 2010, when our family moved here from the valley (Northridge, to be exact), I was a mommy blogger. One of the original crop of women who started blogs when we had our babies, chronicling every burp, sleepless night, and cracked nipple. Every first smile, first step, first solid food…you get the idea. So when we moved here, I was surprised to find that agourahillsmom.com did not exist, and I bought the domain. Over the next few years as I fell in love with the town and created a brand with its home here on this site. If you look around you will find my odes to the local park, the rec center, the schools, restaurants and other businesses that have opened and closed, and especially the hiking trails. There is so much to do and see with your family in Agoura Hills and the surrounding areas, and I wanted to share it with people who live here and people who visit.

reyes adobe days 2012 collage
Reyes Adobe Days 2012

Why Is Agoura Hills Mom for Sale?

Now my little babies are teenagers, and my time is filled with other things: I have a full-time career in marketing, I am writing a novel, and I am working on getting my MBA. I simply do not have the time or energy left after all of that to keep Agoura Hills Mom alive, and frankly, I don’t feel like that mom anymore.

But that doesn’t mean it should go away. I could shut the blog down forever, but there are plenty of Agoura Hills Moms out there, and dads, and guardians and parents and visitors and friends. Before me, there was a column called Agoura Hills Mom Files in Patch. That woman became one of my dearest friends. Before her, I am sure there was someone who tapped out columns on a typewriter or stone slabs and pinned them to a bulletin board or plunked them in the middle of town.

Who Will Be the Next Agoura Hills Mom?

So who will be next? I see a lot of fresh lovely faces in our Facebook group, Parents of Agoura Hills. Is it one of you? Or did you just move to our little town on the edge of the big city and fall in love with it, enough to want to share what you find with the rest of us? You can do it with agourahillsmom.com and its associated Instagram handle, Twitter handle, Facebook page, and Facebook group. It can be yours to carry on and reinvent. If you’ve ever thought of building a career as an influencer, Agoura Hills Mom is your hyperlocal starting point. Please contact me at kim@agourahillsmom.com if you are interested. And if you know someone who would love this opportunity, please share this post with them!

Filed Under: Around Town

Happy 2022 Agoura Hills!

January 1, 2022 by Leave a Comment
sunrise over agoura hills
Sunrise over Lindero Canyon Middle School

It’s been a while since I posted here—I’ll confess, I’ve been busy with other things and most of my activity has been posted in the Parents of Agoura Hills Facebook group. I thought I’d take the new year as an opportunity to return to the blog and post some useful items and an update.

New Yoga Studio: Westlake Yoga

First, a new studio called Westlake Yoga. Opened in 2020 as an outdoor practice, last year it moved into the old YogaWorks studio in Westlake Village. I booked a class this morning so I would be forced to get out of the house and start the new year right! While I was nervous about going to an in-person practice indoors with other humans, my rusty joints and my general sense of inertia needed a kick in the pants. The new management did NOT disappoint. The flow class was exactly what I needed, and the welcoming vibe of the instructor and the other participants gave me the warm fuzzies that are still with me!

Food Scraps Go in the Green Bin in Agoura Hills

Second, this post about how to collect your organic kitchen waste. As you might have seen, a state law requires residents to put our organic food waste into our green bins. That’s right. Kitchen scraps now go into the green bin, not the garbage. And NOT in a bag. That means that you need start collecting food scraps in a container, and dumping its contents into your green bin.

Before you grumble and moan, know that this is a measure meant to help us fight climate change. This effort was actually introduced back in 2016 when CA Senate Bill 1383 was passed. This law set goals for California to reduce organic waste disposal by 75% by 2025. Today is the day residential organic food waste composting requirements go into effect! I don’t know exactly how my family is going to collect scraps. We do have a garden, so we might compost. No matter how we do it, we have to form this new habit. Already today I chuck an orange peel right into the garbage without even thinking.

Selling Agoura Hills Mom

Third, this is the year I would like to pass Agoura Hills Mom to a new publisher. My kids are teenagers and super not into me sharing their hijinks. I started this site in 2010 when our family moved here and I just fell in love with Agoura Hills.

A mom and two little boys at the top of a hiking trail in Agoura Hills
2010, in Chesebro Canyon

But I haven’t blogged regularly in a long time. I rarely if ever participate in hosted family activities or reviews anymore. For the last year or so, I have been focusing on other things. These include finishing my first novel, getting my MBA, and succeeding at work. It would be a shame to let this site and resource go to waste, however. I’d love to find an interested parent to purchase this site and its corresponding social media accounts. I’m putting this intention out into the universe…or at least the Conejo Valley.

Thank You!

If you’ve read all the way to the bottom, hello! Thank you! And happy new year! If you have any questions or tips for me to pass on, or you know someone interested in blogging about our town, you can email me at kim@agourahillsmom.com!

Filed Under: Around Town, Local Businesses

Election 2020 in the Bubble: Agoura Hills City Council and LVUSD School Board

November 2, 2020 by Leave a Comment

sticker design with american flagI’m going to make this short and sweet, and limit my recommendations to two races: Agoura Hills City Council and Las Virgenes Unified School District Board of Education. Not that I don’t have strong opinions about other contests, but because let’s face it—you’ve probably already made up your mind about who you favor for president and vice-president, state representatives, and state and county propositions*. But enough people have texted, PM’d, DM’d, or emailed me with questions about these hyperlocal elections that I’m just going to put it here like I would have if I were blogging more than once in a while. (If you really enjoy the Agoura Hills Mom community, join the Parents of Agoura Hills group on Facebook, or follow the official page.)

Agoura Hills City Council: I endorse Linda Northrup and Illece Buckley Weber. I have watched them champion the preservation of our open space while graciously inviting dialogue with developers who want to do business here. I saw them in action after the Woolsey Fire and amidst the pandemic. I have laughed with them in happy times and worked alongside them in tough times. They are role models for leadership—not just for women in leadership, but for good humans leading the way.

Two women in white shirts and business jackets

Me with Kiyomi Kowalski at a candidate forum in 2018

LVUSD School Board: I am all in for Kiyomi Kowalski. You can vote for two candidates out of the three who are running, and I am delighted to see that another new face is on the ballot this year besides Kiyomi. Even a school board seat is a beast of an elected position to achieve. My hat’s off to Kate Vadehra as well. It is hard work and you have to be committed to the race, in it to win it, even if you lose.

That’s exactly how Kiyomi is. You may remember that I pounded the pavement (and my keyboard) with her in 2018 as she sought to become the first person of color to serve on the Board of Education for LVUSD. I admire her so much for putting her name in and going for it because she believes in our school district and that it can be improved. She is smart, warm, inquisitive, thoughtful, and full of passion. She is real. She is not afraid to “call a thing a thing,” as she puts it.

The day after the election two years ago, I wrote this: “She’s not going away. She’s the real deal. Keep your eye on her, friends.” In that race she received far more votes than you would have expected for a relative unknown, but since then she has become anything but. Kiyomi is everywhere, serving on the PFC, the school site council, the curriculum council, and various boards of organizations and charities. You may have seen her virtual meetups, her appearances on those fairly tame candidate forums, or walking around in your neighborhood dropping off yard signs or flyers. She is out loud and awesome and you can’t miss her.

I was delighted to see that these local elections were the first ones on my ballot, not relegated to the back to be forgotten. Don’t skip them. Make your vote count. After all, this is your town and these are your kids. Choose the leaders who will get us through this fresh hell and maybe back to normal.

Filed Under: Around Town