“Mom, you made spiced tea? Yum!” I would cheer when I walked in the door of our house on a fall afternoon. The smell of the Russian Spiced Tea was instantly recognizable, its sweet perfume infusing the house with a potpourri of autumnal smells. It was one…

A casserole, from the French word for "saucepan", is a large, deep dish or pot used both in the oven and as a serving vessel. The word casserole is also used for the food cooked and served in such a vessel. Casseroles usually consist of pieces of meat or fish, various chopped vegetables, a starchy binder, such as flour, potato or pasta, and, sometimes, a crunchy or cheesy topping. Liquids, such as stock, wine, beer, cider, or vegetable juice,…

Welcome to Step 3 in our series on conflict.

You are brilliant!

In the middle of your conflict situation, you’ve so far made the decision to:

Step1:  Take a step back, and create a space to get calm.

Next, you’ve decided to:

Step 2:  Start with an attitude of “Let’s see it from the other person’s…

Magnificent Monday- we learned how to push her tongue out of the way and just like that, aahh, she survived.





My big twin, was seven pounds seven ounces when she was born. Her sister was five pounds five ounces. My twins were born at 36 weeks when I was 40 years old. This was a high risk pregnancy for many reasons. The reasons included my age, the fact that I was carrying twins and my previous Cesarean section. It was a miracle that I carried my twins inside me for 36 weeks.…

This weekend we had our fabulous Lego themed birthday party! My boys' birthdays are only two weeks apart, so we combined the festivities and had one big party this year. Since Saturday was all-things-Lego all day, when I asked the boys what they wanted in their Muffin Tin Meal on Sunday, they of course responded "Lego theme!" I don't know why I hadn't anticipated that one, but I was trying to think quick to find…

We have one more super busy week, and then we head into a month or so of just the regular routine minus The Coach until football season is over. This week includes the boys'…

• Quarry Books will giveaway one free copy of this book to one of my blog readers from the USA or Canada. 

• Please…

My son is turning into a little Steven Spielberg.

 It's a talent I never expected from my formerly shy little boy.

It all started when I bought a little flipcam on sale. Silly me. I thought I'd learn to make  videos - maybe create some book trailers, you know, learn a few new tricks.

Instead, my son was instantly mesmerized. "Cooool," he said, holding it in his hot little hands. "Is this a video camera? Can I make…

Today I Am Reaching Goals That I Never Thought Were Possible

Here in San Diego at the Fight The Forces Of Evil Event……… All I can say is how amazing… I set this as a goal months ago and I am accomplishing them one at a time. Wow! This is what it is all about! You see fight the forces of evil has so much meaning……and it is only positive. You fight the forces of negative thinking together when you can’t fight them…

I ran my first 5K today.

I wish I could say it was the most exhilarating moment of my life and that I :

Whipped past all of the other runners,

Beat my goal of finishing within a certain amount of time,

Crossed the finish the line and  my family was cheering me on with glittery signs, and blaring horns,

Or that  I had an epiphany (super…

I. Am. Pissed. Off.

If listening to me rant is not your thang then please focus on this soothing image:

Just focus on this

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Or maybe this is more to your liking:…

If you had told me, in my twenties, that an afternoon such as the one I’m having would bring me such a measure of happiness, I would have scoffed (maybe even sneered – I was that kind of girl) and figured that you had zero concept of who I was.

And yet today is the epitome of a happy day for me.…

Clearly it's going to be one of those days. Evidently the only way things will get done is if I do them properly first and wait for someone to come along and change it, which of course means I need to do it again.  Count to 10 and start again.

      Try to cuddle a child and get the brush off, everyone is busy, but set foot in the kitchen and I'm the most popular person ever! Count to 10 and start again! (Perhaps a hug during that 10 count will serve a dual purpose!)

     …

  I've posted before about passing our own fears on to our child, and how I try not to pass on irrational fears or make her afreaid of things she shouldn't be afraid of. There are things that children should be scared of though, and fair or not, I have started using it to my advantage, as there are times when nothing else sems to work, or when I need her to know there is danger.

  Yup, my daughter is scared to run into the road because…

  Watching children grow is an experience that not everyone gets to enjoy, and I try to remind myself every day how blesed I am. There are things that I think I will never want to go through again, and things that I think I won't ever miss, but I now know that one day, I will miss the strangest things...

  

  I will miss her not wanting me to leave. I know that…

Do you remember Golden Records from your childhood? I do, I had all of the records with the follow along books. As a child I loved to read along to the stories and listen to the music. These were the foundation for my desires to play music as I grew. Well do I have good news to share with you. Golden Records is back by popular…

Serene Sunday - for me, serenity can be found in Quick Date Night with my husband.

Each Sunday throughout the month of September I will be exploring ways to find serenity in one hour or less. This week, I am finding serenity in Quick Date Night with my husband.

 As you know, I am a wife and mother of four children. I love my little…

Due to an out-of-state funeral (and an all morning field trip) we had a very short week. Most work was done away from home. Rather than just playing with toys, the wii, and watching movies at Grandpa's and Nana's house I brought a few activities with us. In the midst of a crazy week disrupted by grief I suspected it'd provide some sense of normalcy. It did.

You could easily say we took four field trips this week. Going to his great-grandpa's…