When we moved my daughter from her crib to her big girl room around the age of 2, we decided that purchasing a new mattress seemed like a ridiculous idea. She had not yet potty-trained, and on top of years of accidents, we assumed there would be the occasional sickness related clean-up issues. At the…

This is not a story of “I was fat all my life.”   I’m not going to show you pictures of an obese 4 year old girl with an ice cream cone in her hands. I was healthy. I was active. Then something went wrong… I don’t think that any of us know how these…

I have always wanted a vegetable garden. This spring when I wrote about the Oasis garden, I was excited to get one for my family and to finally get started growing my own veggies! Around the same time I was able to offer my readers (and myself) a discount on Backyard Leisure cedar playsets, so…

Meet Diane Birch Diane’s album, Bible Belt, debuted Tuesday, June 2nd. Her album has already rocketed to the #3 spot on the iTunes pop chart. VH-1 just added her video for “Nothing But A Miracle” While growing up all around the globe, this talented singer-songwriter was exposed to all types of music…as well as people…

Thank you, Disney!

photo credit: Dimsis Last night as my husband was getting the kids ready for bed, I sat downstairs in the relative quiet and worked on my laptop. Bath had ended and while the children got themselves dressed, I knew my time to help with tucking in was fast approaching. While I worked frantically I overheard…

After I gave birth to my son Noah, members of my local MOMS Club brought meals for my family for a couple of weeks. They served delicious homemade pies, yummy casseroles, and healthy salads. But what was most memorable were the little treats that some of the moms thought to bring for my two year…

Alyssa from Life from My Laptop recently asked: “How much money should we save before even booking a trip to Disney?” If you are looking just at what the trip costs and not at options such as financing, you might be surprised at how affordable a trip can be! For the sake of discussion*, I’m…

Today as I worked online and enjoyed some quiet time with my daughter, I thought it might be fun to find out from some other people why they love Walt Disney World. I know why I love it –   it makes me feel like a kid again, puts a smile on my children’s faces,…

Sarah from Real Life asked: “Is it better to get a package deal or try to book the hotel away from the park?” I’m going to begin with the exceptions to the rule in this case. If you belong to a hotel discount club program, you may do better financially booking a hotel away from…

My first year of teaching, the private school where I worked went bankrupt…mid-year. I was 22 and thought it was a noble cause to continue to work for the $600 stipend they were able to scrape together for each of us from the ginormous tuition the parents paid. Clearly the parents felt bad. They began…

Next weekend Memorial Day will kick off the unofficial beginning of summer. Families will drive to the beach, fly to the mountains, and spend time with friends and family around campfires, restaurant tables, and swimming pools…but not as many families as in other years. For some of us, the best much-needed break will be a…

*Thank you to New Baby for donating this VADO camera from Creative Labs to our fun event. Please check out New Baby and consider adding your own vlog!There’s still time to try the new parenting advice search engine, Mamapedia, and enter the “What Can I Learn Today?” contest. One grand prize winner will win a…

One of the online places where I write weekly is Type-A Mom, where I am the Child Development editor. I’ve written articles about everything from a hearing checklist to Kindergarten readiness to children’s growth statistics. But here I sit, with my baby boy just turned three & trying so hard to potty train, and my…

Have you ever needed to do something that you knew was important and should be done well and so you keep putting it off, and putting it off? That was the case with these two reviews. My daughter was given the opportunity to try Powder Art by Crescent and Story Time Felt story boards, and…

The last couple of weeks have been very stressful. As some of you know, there have been some trademark issues regarding my mom blogger network, Momfluence, and having to deal with those issues has not only been incredibly upsetting but also time consuming. On top of that I was dealing with the every day that…

When I set out to create my video message to Congress asking them to support us and Speak Now for Kids, I thought at first that I might explain why health care is important to me. Maybe I would tell the story of my daughter’s birth two months early and the three weeks she spent…

I like to snack. And I like caffeine. I try to occasionally have a banana and a glass of water for my snack – I really do, I swear – but I need crunch in my munch. The way to satisfy this need lately has been for me to grab a handful of SunChips or…

With my first baby, I carried around a giant Winnie-the-Pooh bag, or sometimes that free black diaper bag we all get at the hospital. I hadn’t chosen either, and I didn’t much care. When kiddo number two came along I decided after Pooh had clearly gone on his last trip and the second black bag…

I have known, well, forever that someday I would take my family to Disney. I’m one of “those people” who loves to give in to the magic of music, dancing, story-telling. So it was not long after my son was born that I began wondering when we would take our children to Disney for the…

Have you heard enough about the Swine Flu yet? You may be worried about this: (photo credit: Mussles) But you should be worried about this: (photo credit: Veganontheedge) We live in a society where items are readily available, almost around the clock. Prescriptions, gas, a gallon of milk, all easily accessible 24 hours a day….