Encourage
The Joplin Tornado: My Own Stack of Rocks
There's something about increments of '5' that make us sit up and take notice. We celebrate those anniversaries (5th, 10th, 25th etc) as more monumental than others. Why? No idea. It's just one of those generally accepted societal truths. To state the obvious, my...
read moreThug Life (And by “Thug” I Mean “Mom”)
Eight days left. This school year is almost done....we can make it my friends...we can. I think. Maybe this will help? CLICK HERE for our little video attempt to ease you through the last few days of school.... (Here are the lyrics if you want to sing along...but...
read moreThe Most Memorable Mother’s Day Gifts…
There's some debate in my household on whether or not Mother's Day is a "real" holiday....or just one thought up by Hallmark to make people scurry to the store to buy cards, chocolate, and random inspirational plaques or chocolate. You can probably imagine who is on...
read moreLessons Learned from My Mom Friends Along the Way
Mother’s Day is Sunday. The lessons I’ve learned aren’t all from my own mother. They are from all the moms in my life! I learned from my friends who struggled with infertility that mothering starts before babies are even on the way. I learned from other moms how to...
read moreLetter to That Mom at the Water Park….
Standing in a ridiculously slow line for the snack bar at a ridiculously over-priced and over-crowded indoor waterpark, I take slow even breaths as the cashiers try quite unsuccessfully to figure out how to remove french fries from an order and replace them with...
read moreTip Yourself Today! And Tame That Voice That Says You Can’t
There is a cool new app out right now called Tip Yourself (props to my husband for discovering it first). It's a finance app, and the theory is that if you tip service professionals for a job well done, why not tip yourself? You connect the app to your bank account,...
read more5 Ways to Completely Ruin Your Child’s Life at Any Stage
I figure that between the almost-16 years I've been a parent, the 9 kids that our writers have in total, and the countless other "nephews and nieces" I've helped raise over the years....IN ADDITION TO the fact that I was a child myself (long long ago)...I've become...
read moreSo Many Signs
I have a saying for you--actually, I have a couple of them: Good moms have sticky floors, dirty counters and happy kids. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work. Life doesn't always go the way we expect it to.....Thank...
read moreApril Fool’s Tricks For Kids (or your better half)
Yeah, I know we are all tired. But, April Fool's Day is tomorrow. I have three kids who have it coming. All year long I am their taxi cab, nurse, maid, chef, psychologist… Tomorrow I am going to enjoy myself. Lucy freaks out if we talk about moving. The thought...
read more“Dear Dad”: How Camp Letters Haven’t Changed Since 1931
You know how everything kids do "these days" is nothing like what "we used to do"? It's true in a million ways, except one: letters from camp! My mom was going through old family papers last week and hit the jackpot with letters that her mother (my grandmother...
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