This is where I grew up, in the orange dot in the middle of the black circle.  We lived on a double lot with nothing but grass and a couple white birch trees, and behind us were fields of horses and sheep.  Space to run and play?  My town cornered the market on space. Then…

My first grade daughter has this friend, H, that she just absolutely adores.  They sit together at lunch, play together at recess, and get along like two silly, happy peas in a pod.  Last month while my family traveled to Walt Disney World for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, H had her birthday party,…

Each day I receive a couple dozen post ideas from various agencies and companies.  They often make me roll my eyes (“Are you satisfied in bed?”), make me scratch my head (“Dear Mommy Blogger Insert Name Here”), but sometimes make me stop in my tracks and realize that I absolutely cannot simply click delete and…

…for Spongebob, Harry Potter, the Twilight series… I have told my kids that they will never be allowed to watch Spongebob because there is no “right age” for rude and disgusting, but what about Harry Potter and other works of children’s literature that have become a right of passage for kids?  Just because a child…

Look what I did: I was so inspired after reading and reviewing Pretty Neat that I couldn’t help but attack that horrible problem area.  So how did I do it? I used a few of the tips from the book: 1. The power of NO! – Okay, so I didn’t shout it every time I…

With my first child, milestones were like the elephant in the room.  My daughter was born two months early, and while most babies her age were sitting unsupported, pulling up on furniture, and beginning to crawl, Emma was still struggling for muscle control and strength.  With each milestone, the pediatrician gave us both the “normal”…

Last fall I wrote a pair of posts about the search for who I used to be before I came a mom.  I am amazed at how rarely I know the education or professional background of my mom and blogging friends, yet I know their children’s favorite sports and food allergies.  Previously I looked at…

Mondays tear me up.  More accurately, they tear me down. I always knew I would be a stay-at-home mom, and immediately after giving birth to my first child, I decided that I never wanted to return to teaching.  Our original family plan was to head back to the classroom when our first child entered kindergarten,…

I am not a morning person.  Waking me up when I do not want to be awake is a bit like approaching a tiger as it is feasting on its prey.  Let’s just say that I’ve perfected hitting the offender without actually opening my eyes or rolling over. This morning about 6:30 my husband carefully…

Over the weekend a good friend of mine sent me a message that she had finally confronted her sister-in-law about an on-going family issue.  My brother and sister-in-law were visiting us with their kids for the weekend, so it was an interesting time to hear about such a confrontation.  I am very fortunate in that…

When my daughter was just a couple months old, my husband and I took her to see a geneticist at one of the top children’s hospitals in the country.  She had been born two months early with heart defects and other abnormalities, and while weeks of blood tests ruled out the basics, her doctors recommended…

No, I don’t have the fever.  The Bieber Fever. Once I got past the solid six months or so of being aggravated by the screaming girls and the insane hair when Justin Bieber first reached super-stardom, thus taking over every news program, talk show, and magazine, I was able to step back and appreciate what…

We know it’s a problem.  We must. I see it all around me from friends’ Facebook updates to traditional media stories to my own life.  Just this morning I grabbed the latest Newsweek to hit the highlights in two minutes or less and found Lisa Miller’s article “Mommy is Busy Right Now.” Darn right she’s…

Over the past two and a half years of blogging, I’ve written several times about children’s nutrition.  The sad fact is, however, that I am much better at keeping my kids from eating what they should not eat than I am at encouraging them to eat enough of what they should eat.  For all the…

Last week I set out on a three day expedition into the wilds of parenting.  I traveled against my will to the land of Consecutive Snow Days.  I learned early on in my journey that it was safest to keep a reasonable distance, let them roam freely.  Periodically I offered food, something to drink, and…

As parents, we all have standards for what words may be used in our homes around our children, and then as our children get older, we set standards for the language they use.  I remember using the word “bottom” instead of “butt” until one day when my son was about two I gave up on…

As I enjoy this holiday season with my family, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts from 2010… You know the old saying. An apple a day…is just about impossible to get my kid to eat. Not the way you remembered it?  When my daughter was a toddler, I was sure nutrition would…

As I enjoy this holiday season with my family, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts from 2010… Summer is a great time of year to experiment with fun and healthy foods. With the kids home for the summer, meal time is more flexible and foods don’t need to be school approved or…

As I enjoy this holiday season with my family, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts from 2010… I have this theory.  Okay, so I have lots of theories, but this particular one involves you, me, and the women of Jane Austen’s novels.  Have you ever felt as though you were raised to…

As I enjoy this holiday season with my family, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts from 2010… I love this grainy old picture of me, and not because I was much thinner and had the long, flowing tresses that twenty-one year olds actually have the time and energy to maintain.  I love…

As I enjoy this holiday season with my family, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts from 2010… As parents, we need to have an ever-changing bag of tricks to deal with the challenges of parenthood.  My nemesis is space.  I am constantly looking for new places to store items that make sense,…