There is no substitute for hard work. – Thomas A. Edison Before my husband and I had children, we talked about the kind of things we wanted to teach our children. High on our list was teaching our children to work. The interesting thing with work is that you assume people just know how to […]

Kids activities can quickly get expensive when you add up the price of admission, parking, food, or souvenirs (which we hardly ever buy) .  At the same time, you want to provide a wide range of experiences for your children and have fun together as a family. Luckily, there are a lot of kids activities […]

Awful parent moments are a rite of passage. Children are unpredictable, which leaves parents scrambling to anticipate when the next disaster is going to strike. If you’ve managed to escape these horrible parenting moments, I’m impressed. The public tantrum, screaming baby, loud body noises, rudeness, and honesty are only a few experiences we all get […]

I was taking a walk through our property the other day with one of my kids. It was a gorgeous day. We live in the middle of 40 heavily wooded acres. I realized as we were walking that I was staring at our feet. All I could see was dirt, sticks, and rocks. There was […]

A letter to everyone at my local library that I should have written 3 years ago. Everything in this letter has actually happened, but not all in the same trip. Dear Library People, I’m sorry. Let’s get that out in the open right now. You’re completely right – what was I thinking bringing four children […]

No one likes to lose and I am no different. I grew up playing sports, lots of them, like three sports in high school and one year of college volleyball. However, I’m not sure you would call my sports career successful in the traditional sense. In high school, the best team record we ever had […]

Last night I read two journal entries from ten years ago. Life was very different and somehow still very the same. I was simultaneously hit with sadness and joy. The more I read, the more I knew what I wanted to write about today. Journal writing is about more than keeping track of life events. […]

We have all read articles about the importance of family dinner. The importance of coming together over family dinner and discussing the day’s events is cited as a way to connect with children. You know, general family bonding. Everyone seems to agree that eating dinner together is important. I know they are right. I know family […]

    If you had told me when I was 15-years-old that I would be a homemaker, I probably would have growled at you and told you that was not happening. Oh, how I laugh at my teenage self. As a teen, I thought a homemaker was a maid that didn’t get paid. I’m sure that’s […]

  Before I start this letter, which is really a series of notes, I want to first address the topic of parent judging. Parent judging, in our culture, has almost reached the level of an Olympic sport. Oddly enough, the worst parent judging I have ever seen is online. It’s easy to judge when no […]