Sometimes my son asks me how I felt about school. I tell him about the positive things I liked about it - the library, getting to run messages to the teachers, picking my classes as I got older - and the weird things - like the time that I got roped into helping one of the nuns, lost track of time and missed science class.…

We had bought our son a guitar a few years ago after he had mentioned he wanted to learn how to play it, but that desire was short lived. Maybe we rushed it. Or maybe we didn't ask the right questions to determine if it was really the right instrument for him.…

I know that I put a lot of pressure on myself to have my family eat together. I meal plan, I leave work at strategic times to try and avoid traffic to get dinner on the table on time, and I review the week's activities to see where conflicts arise.…

I love that my son is fairly tall for his age. First of all, it is handy that he can reach items on shelves without my help. But more importantly, it is a constant reminder that he is getting older and can do things for himself. Like at dinner time: He is more than capable of serving himself food or getting himself more to drink. I don't need to do any of that for him, and he actually enjoys serving himself dinner. Same thing for weekend…

Sometimes I think about the spaces in our home and how we use them. Some rooms are obvious: Bedrooms, for example. We need those and spend lots of time in them. Some spaces feel underused. We have a beautiful loft area with custom book shelves built by my wonderful husband, but I don't spend as much time in that space as I thought I would. (Full disclosure: My son loves that space.) We recently reclaimed our screened-in back porch and…

When I was a little girl, there was another child in our school that was allergic to chocolate, and one of the nuns was allergic to eggs. And those two scenarios represented my exposure to food allergies...until I was an adult.



Now, I know a lot of people with food allergies. This comes from more people…

I've always loved the wind. 



On Friday night, my Mom and I were walking back to her car after an event and the wind was really blowing. Temperatures were low already, and the wind was biting cold and whipping us about.…

It's already mid-November and everyone around me seems to be stressed out about the holidays. They are trying to make travel arrangements or planning a menu or preparing themselves for seeing family that they don't get along with.



That last one is pretty important. I hear it in the hallways of my office:…

A few nights ago, I pulled out our family photo albums and had my son look through them with me. As a long-time scrapbooker, I am very proud of our family photo albums. I spend countless hours connecting the photos to the story of the event and the result is that the albums tend to read more like a story. They also tend to spark memories.…

My wonderful husband was recently at a conference for work, and throughout the week, I noticed something strange happening to the dinners my son and I shared. To start, they went faster - we ended up eating leftovers several times throughout the week so that I didn't have to cook as often. I also broke out more games to play at the table (maybe I was trying to distract us from missing my husband). Finally, they seemed slightly more…

I have a lot to thank my Mom for: My wit, my superior planning skills, my grit, my love of dresses with pockets.... There are a lot of lessons she taught me over the years - even if they were ones that I picked up on while just watching her.



I now have one more item to add to that ever expansive list: My…

Our son's school recently completed the fall parent-teacher conferences that give us some insight into what the teachers plan to cover over the course of the year and any areas we need to help address at home. There was an interesting spin on the discussions this year, as the conference was led by our son.…

My husband, son and I are playing Rummikub. This is a game that I especially loved as a child and one that my husband is fond of as well. We are equally matched players, although I have a tendency to re-arrange all the tiles on the board more frequently than he does.…

We've had an action-packed month. Looking over all the activities we've completed while still going to work or school, I am sure that none of us have gotten enough sleep. There have been numerous nights in which I've looked at the clock and realized it was well past my son's bedtime. And there have been many other nights when I've looked at the clock and realized it was past my bedtime.…

We don't do a lot of time outs in our household. I recall reading a lot of research around them when my son was younger and fully understanding that consistency was key with using them. But reading about something and practicing it are two different things. My husband and I hadn't worked through enough of the full details.…

There are a lot of things that I love about our home - the loft area with the bookshelves that my wonderful husband built, the ability for me to have my own office, and the breakfast nook where we eat the majority of our meals. I love that little nook. There are large windows that look out onto our private backyard so the view is very green and it is not facing the street, so it tends to be quiet.…

My son's school recently had a boosterthon. It was one of those fun runs where the children all gather pledges per laps and the school uses the funds to purchase more technology. During the pledge drive, I received a daily email from the school, as well as numerous messages from the teachers and voicemail blasts about special pledge nights.…

I remember being my son's age quite clearly. Not all of it, of course, but enough of it to recall what I liked about my childhood. I remember lots of fun outside and times at my best friend's house and summers spent at camp. It all seemed magical and wonderful and something I am thankful for.…

My wonderful husband plays many roles in my life: He is my best friend, my rock in rough times and my partner. That last role is super important to me, because it is a big factor in the overall happiness level in our household.…