This post is part of a sponsored post campaign. Compensation has been provided. Just how much do your children know about the dangers of over-the-counter medications? As parents, we do our best to educate our children about the dangers of drinking, street drugs, and even prescription medication but have you talked to your children about…

– All Sons & Daughters, “Brokenness Aside“ I once had a close friend who shared with me the many inappropriate advances of what I’m going to call The Women of the Internet. If his point was to open my eyes to the sad condition of the human heart, he succeeded. That alone would have been incredibly…

My grandmother was in love with Kenny Rogers. I’m assuming she was also in love with my grandfather, but she certainly talked more about Kenny Rogers. The woman who would rather drown newborn puppies than take a dog to the vet would actually blush when she talked about Kenny Rogers. This was serious business. As…

Every time I meet with my money guy, Ara, he makes me listen to an explanation of the risk level of my investments. It’s his job to determine if I’m feeling risk averse or if suddenly I’ve become a new person and want to roll the dice, invest with abandon. I always listen politely and…

Three and a half years ago I wrote about the pain of parenting, opting to keep the details of the medical decision private and write instead about the emotions I was experiencing. In the end, the decision was made to move forward with a disruptive but mostly pain free treatment for our daughter’s medical issue. A year…

This post is part of a sponsored post campaign. Compensation has been provided. As a mom of two digital natives, I’m constantly looking for digital media that will not only entertain my kids, but that will also meet our rigorous standards for what we’ll allow our kids to view. The number of digital learning tools…

If you were to go into the Drafts folder of this blog, you’d find the following: 1.   “The reality of day to day life, this challenge of just living, is nothing like what I expected. After ten years and two kids, I’m just now becoming the mom I had always hoped to be. I more often…

With over a month of the new school year already behind us, all of our children have surely by now reviewed their school’s safety plans with their teachers. They’ve sheltered in place, they’ve prepared for a tornado, and a staple of every school, they’ve reviewed their fire safety plans. But do your kids know what…

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.  Have you ever stopped to think about the power of a smile?  Over the last six years, I’ve traveled extensively for work, from Las Vegas to Orlando, Los Angeles to east Africa. Walking swiftly through airport after airport surrounded by busy…

Alison loved the color blue. She loved irises, her cat Tigger, writing, music, acting, dancing, Sylvia Plath, order and neatness. She loved soothing candles and homemade soup that she’d make with specific friends in mind to show them she cared. She tucked in her shirts. She wrote thank you notes on thick stationery. She tied…

I want all of you to meet Patrick. This sweet baby began his fight against cancer during his first year of life. As he approached his first birthday, his mother noticed a lump in Patrick’s belly. He was later diagnosed with Wilms’ Tumor, a rare form of cancer that strikes the youngest among us. I…

(This post was originally published 5/5/2011.) The first time I visited my husband’s home state of Texas, I was baffled by the roads running parallel to every major highway.  Imagine building two of the exact same road right next to each other, one with six lanes, one with two, one moving quickly, one not as…

(This post was originally published 4/19/2010) “…I try to draw the line but it ends up running down the middle of me most of the time.” – Ani DiFranco I grew up in a family that gave very little thought to how other people lived. Certainly we sat around summer picnics and shared all the…

This post was originally published 9/12/2009. Last week my dad handed me an interesting article he was reading about children and self-discipline. The basis of the article was new research showing that children can be taught self-discipline (is ‘taught self-discipline’ oxymoronic to anyone but me?). While I agree that parents can work with children to…

This post was originally published October 24, 2010. And you won’t believe where we’re going… A year ago I reviewed a book calledSpilt Milk, and while I enjoyed the entire book, there was one passage in particular that never left my heart.  Author Linda Vujnov writes: “‘All men are idiots, and I married the king…

This post is part of a sponsored campaign on behalf of Rack Room Shoes.  We’ve had a bit of shoe drama in our house over the last few months. Back in March we rescued a puppy from a foster home and quickly learned that her one vice is stealing shoes. Winnie doesn’t discriminate in her…

(originally published 8/1/13) When my grandfather died rather suddenly several years ago, I have to admit that I was heartbroken.  He never took me fishing or held my hand while telling me stories.  He hadn’t showered me in gifts or doted on me as some grandfathers do.  He was a man who smelled of motor…

Just like you, my Facebook newsfeed is filled with link after link asking me to watch a stunning (Really! You have to see it to believe it!) video or read about an amazing kid who can sing the National Anthem backward in five languages. I usually just scroll past them and instead stare at your…

This content is part of a sponsored campaign. I just took a long, hard look at my June calendar. With only a week of school remaining, I’m looking forward to leisurely starts to our days and afternoons at the pool. Unfortunately, getting through the next half a month is going to be an incredible challenge…

This school year has been trying. Yes, I know they’re all like that. I get it. But this one just seemed…soul killing. Between the dying cat who then became the dead cat, the endless snow days and historically frigid winter, the flooded basement that included a probably broken and certainly mangled foot, the pneumonia, the decision…

If we’re being honest, we all know that family vacations tend to include more than their fair share of stress. Add a couple overtired children to that stress, and what you’ve got is a recipe for parenting disaster. My husband and I have traveled to Walt Disney World Resort enough times now to be able to do so without…