Category: Parenting

  • Connecting and Blending a Family at Dinner

    Sitting in American Girl Cafe waiting for our server to greet us, Princess Daisy spotted a bright pink box in the middle of the table. In it were slips of paper with questions. She loved the idea of taking turns posing questions, which started one of the most memorable meals we had in New York…

  • New Family Experiences

    As this publishes, Sean and I are en route to New York City with our four youngest kids. Two of the four have never been to the city, which makes this trip so much more special. I can’t wait to see their faces as we enter the city, see Times Square, walk through Central Park,…

  • A Soon-to-Be-Happy Halloween

    I have been a Halloween crank with my kids. The decorations didn’t go up until yesterday. Frankenstorm was here to destroy the outside decorations, but I can’t use that as an excuse; there was nothing inside either. Last night pumpkin carving was a disaster. We had a rotten pumpkin that smelled like decomposing seafood when…

  • On How I Abuse My Child

    This morning I woke with a sense of both dread and excitement. Excitement for the upcoming date with a great guy this evening.  A guy who is bright, funny, and simply cool. “Cool” not being a word I typically use to describe people, but it suits him perfectly. He is incredibly intelligent, excelling at anything…

  • A Single Mom Dream: Resting and Doing Nothing

    Last summer when writing my annual Family Summer Activity List post, I stated I knew it would be a challenging summer to balance parenting, work, and school. I was also confident it would be better than the summer before though, which was filled with mediation and attorney appointments. I was right about summer 2011; it…

  • Defining My Own ‘Happily Ever After’

    Last week I wrote a piece focusing on storybooks and relationships, complaining essential lessons about love are not in these books. I then discovered a storybook last weekend that does teach a wonderful lesson to children. A lesson I just learned at 43. Two special little girls in my life have a book called Claire…