My choice of fried chicken and crème-filled cookies does not define me as a human being. Unless the old adage of “you are what you eat” is really true, then I consist of a conglomeration of sugar, flour, oil and a bunch of words that I cannot pronounce. Most certainly the values of a company whose food I eat do not define my own moral stance. Last I checked, the United States still remains a free country where people have the right to believe in any God(s) or lack of God(s) that they like. Would you bash and protest outside of the home of neighbors whose moral stances did not equate your own…

Is it just me or has the summer flown by? I feel like we’re just getting the hang of the lazy days of summer and soon the alarm will sound at 6:15 a.m. every morning calling the kids to rise and shine for school. Although I really do look forward to the structure that the school year will bring to our busy lives, I just want to revel in the lazy days of summer a little longer. The kids are growing up way too fast and realistically I have two more years before my oldest will be graduating from high school. That really makes me want to stop the clock! We’ve had a pretty great summer. We’ve …

Beautiful baskets and lines of carefully labeled glass jars gracing parchment lined shelves—a vision that doesn’t need to hide behind closed doors but is beautiful enough to be on display, my pantry (in my dreams). I suffer from pantry-envy. Forget “Magic Mike”, I fantasize about clean and organized cabinets. The problem is that I am a perfectionist. You wouldn’t know it offhand, because I hide behind my clutter. It is a paradox. I am such a perfectionist that it is almost impossible to achieve my vision-of-the-moment and I end up drowning in half-eaten boxes of Fruit Loops, on-sale boxes of …

So, this is a bit of a follow-up to my last article which was inspired by our recent trip to Orlando, Florida. I say a bit because that article was about memories and losing your mind. Well, this article is about memories and losing your mind too though not inspired by the drive but by the vacation itself.  First, I have to say that we LOVE going to Orlando, i.e., Disney World and Universal Studios. Our family has been very blessed to be able to visit many times over the past several years. We are getting to know our way around Orlando pretty well. Our “home away from home” lets us feel right…

“No” seemed to be my parent’s favorite word when I was growing up back in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Everything seemed to be a “no” and when I was younger it was a “no-no”. Whether I was sneaking my mother’s lipstick or holding an impromptu yard sale with my little brother’s toys, I would get a resounding “no” usually followed by a swat on my backside. When was the last time you heard someone say “no” to their kids and really mean it? I am as guilty as anyone. Anyone who has ever had children knows that even babies have a 6th sense which tells them to cry, hit their sibling, or be as loud …

As we travel the long, hardly ever winding, nothing to look at but the latest construction road to Florida passing the Chick-Fil-A signs, I can’t help but sing in my head the Tim Hawkins song to the tune of Yesterday. “Chick-Fil-A … kids get in the van so we can go there today, but their stores are closed oh I know cause it’s Sunday. Chick-Fil-A, what a dirty rotten trick to play, now I’ll have to settle for Subway”. We often crave Chick-Fil-A on Sundays. And I love the latest billboard, ”Repeat after me: I.R.A. chicken eater”. Yes, a stop at Chick-Fil-A would be welcome on this trip that …

  Summertime for most of us equates to more kids (anyone else feeding the entire neighborhood?) and more mess: popsicle residue on your floors, fingerprints everywhere and a bevy of strewn about plates, cups, napkins, towels and assorted pool accessories. Summer is a lot of fun, but in some ways it is also a lot more work. If your kids can make a mess, they can also clean it up. Oh no, the horror of chores! Nothing stops my children complaining of boredom quicker than a suggestion of household duties they could perform. If yours are like mine, they are also under the false (I hope) assumption…

June brings many things to celebrate at my house. We celebrate beautiful summer days full of sunshine, warm summer evenings glowing with fireflies, a certain little girl’s birthday and then there’s Father’s Day. A special day to honor the one who brings home the bacon, kills all the spiders that creep and crawl around the house, fixes (or tries to fix) all that is broken and puts the fun in family. I don’t think many of us are prepared for parenthood and what we expect it to be and what it really is can be vastly different. There are so many things about being a parent that we just don’t see …

When’s the last time you had a conversation with someone, in person? Not an IM, FaceBook rant, email, Skype or even a normal telephone call—but an actual face to face conversation with someone? Sitting at the local coffee house with a girlfriend while you check-in, update your status and respond to umpteen different text messages doesn’t really count. Maybe you see it as multi-tasking. Guess what? It’s rude. Along with everything else, etiquette is striving to keep up with the changing times and technology. Netiquette is more than just not using all caps to send a message; it is using basic …

It’s almost here. Summer vacation officially begins at my house this Friday with the last day of school. The kids can hardly wait for all that summer promises to bring. We are all looking forward to a more relaxed schedule with the freedom to do absolutely nothing if we so choose. I remember how my friends and I eagerly awaited the beginning of summer and it’s just as exciting experiencing it again with my children. Summer vacation was the most anticipated of school holidays. It was the end of “early to bed early to rise” school days that hampered fun. The lazy days of summer beckon us all to…

I hate clutter, yet I am a cluttered person when it comes to paper. One of the great things about technology is that it helped me be better organized and clutter-free or so I thought. Is computer clutter getting you down? Are you giving yourself a headache trying to remember which device and/or application you used to make a note, save a file or bookmark a website? Are you sharing your devices with your children? Here are some free options to help: Clouds—yeah, those things up in the sky that make rain. No, a cloud in technology terms basically means internet resourcing. It is another way of …

I have been blessed to have strong female role models in my life. They have all influenced the mother that I have become especially my own mother. As different as I am from them, I realize the strengths I have discovered in myself over the years has come from their influence. My mother is one of the strongest women I have ever known. My parents divorced when I was very young and she became a single parent raising a little girl on her own. From her, I have learned to be independent. It’s okay to be alone sometimes and to go your own way. She loves family and made sure that I knew who my family…

Everyday should be Mother’s Day, not because of the extraordinary but because of the mundane and the resulting spin that keeps insanity at bay. Have you been or recently seen a “mother on the edge”? They are all around you, potty-training two-year olds and driving gaggles of teenagers home from after-school activities. They are lurking just outside the preschool classroom, nervous wrecks as their children leave them for the first time. They are celebrating at the bus stop the first day the kids go back to school after Spring Break. They are eagerly plotting a trip to the college recruiter one…

“We become what we think about all day long."—Ralph Waldo Emerson So what “sets up camp” in your mind every day? Is it something good or something not so good? We all experience negative thoughts daily. But how do you turn that frown upside down? In 1952 a book was published titled “The Power of Positive Thinking”. According to PsychologyToday, the author of the book said “the secret is to fill your mind with thoughts of faith, confidence and security. This will force out or expel all thoughts of doubt, all lack of confidence.” I think this equates as well to the negative people around us. We…

Practically anyone who has ever been in charge of a preschooler understands that taste is fickle and may change according to the weather or tides. One day peanut butter is a favorite and the next it is despised. It is a chore for many parents to convince their children to eat vegetables.  With the childhood obesity problem only getting worse, many of us are desperate to include vegetables whenever and wherever we can. It has become trendy to “hide” vegetables into food hoping that children won’t notice. There are several popular juice drinks that incorporate carrot and other juices in with …

As I write this, my boys are with their neighborhood buddies (what we moms call the militia) down the street and through the woods playing fascinating war games—something I completely love about them. They may one day defend our nation. And they have missed it so considering their time in the woods has been limited this year partly due to wet weather and cold temperatures but also partly due to a confrontation last fall that had me quite apprehensive for them. And this apprehension has remained patiently and quietly waiting deep in my consciousness but the Trayvon Martin case in Florida has …

There are over seven million words in the U.S. Tax Code for which I am financially liable if I make a mistake, and at the end of the grueling tax-return filing process, an appeal is made for a donation to the Democratic and Republican parties. Are you kidding me? According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the 2008 Presidential Campaign was the costliest in history with about $5.3 billion in spending. According to the same article, the 2010 election (during an economic depression) had a cost of $3.6 billion, up from $2.8 billion in 2006. It is 2012 and though early in the campaign, the …

Every morning at 6:15 a.m., I am rudely awakened by the alarm clock. I know I set it, but it is still rude startling me out of a much needed state of deep sleep. I shuffle to the sink to wash my face, get dressed and begin the wakeup calls to my three sleeping angels. You see that’s just what they are when they are sleeping. But when stirred, two out of three occasionally wake up on the wrong side of the bed. They are not “morning people”. And I know just how they feel! And of course, not being morning people means that getting the day started is a dreaded task. They would be content to pour …

We have all heard of wrongful death lawsuits, whether it was against a company who did not follow OSHA regulations, against a pharmacy who distributed the wrong prescription drug or against an individual. I am grateful to live in a country in which legal action can be taken when negligence causes death. However, is it right to sue for “wrongful birth”?  On Friday, March 9, The Oregonian reported that a jury awarded almost $3 million to a couple who sued a health system for the “wrongful birth” of their daughter. According to Merriam-Webster, wrongful birth is “a malpractice claim brought by …

Trees and bushes are blooming, birds are singing and yellow jackets are arriving signaling the coming of spring. And like the pop of a gun signaling the start of a race, this past weekend courted in the time change that I both dread and look forward to at the same time.  It’s great to have more daylight hours to enjoy. The kids will begin to linger outside longer every evening as will I enjoying the fresh air and captivating sounds of the neighborhood kids playing a game of soccer or football in the front yard. My heart smiles as I see the tree climbers scramble up the big Pear tree (not …