The kids leave their clothes all over the house. So, when I saw a pair of girl's underwear crumpled on the floor in the hallway, I wasn't surprised. But I was annoyed.

I yelled from the hallway, toward the general vicinity where I thought the children might be. "Who left their underwear on the hallway floor?"

Silence.

"Hello?"

Zaffy yelled back from…

Walking down the street:

Mgazi: Mommy, Reina told the teacher on me today and I didn't do anything.

Zaffron: Don't worry,…

I don't drink coffee. I've said those words so many times over the last decades. Those days are over. A weekend trip to Kona on the Big Island has changed everything. Russell's uncle grows his own coffee beans in his yard. He made me an espresso with a spoonful of brown sugar and I was hooked.

Since returning home, I've been trying all sorts of coffee preparations and…

My husband, Russell, is 44 years old. Not that old, really, for a guy. (I'm 42 which is ancient, but that's a different story.) Forty-four years old and the AARP will not stop hounding him. Every six months or so he gets another letter in the mail inviting him to "join"…

A friend of mine from college wrote a book entitled, Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It. The…

So, I've been pretty good with doing my mirror affirmations lately. On Saturday morning, I decided to ask the girls if they wanted to join me. Simple request, right? Great way to bond with my girls, right? Excellent tool to provide them as a mother who cares about raising self-confident, fulfilled little kids, right?

Me: Hey girls. Mommy's going to do some…

The 53 stairs leading up to my house are a minefield of slimy, disgusting slugs. Every morning, without fail, I have to dodge, hop, skip, and weave my way down the stairs in an attempt to not step on one of the suckers. I always make sure I have some extra change on hand, though, just in case.  If I squish a slug, I can assure you I will not be the one who scrapes it off the bottom…

It occurs to me that both of my girls, Mgazi, age 5 and Zaffron, age 7, ask me “why” multiple times a day. What I want to know is this:

Do I really have to answer?

I’ve been giving the whole matter some thought and I realize that my children’s questions usually fall under one of three categories.

Category 1: Technical…

Mgazi: Mommy! Mommy! Look at this picture I drew!

Me: What a good drawing, Mgazi. You are a talented…