Encouragement

We've been at this special needs parenting thing for 11 years now. It's intense, scary and overwhelming more days than we will tell you about. It's never ever getting to let your hair down, because somebody in your home is counting on you to do CPR, save their life, or monitor their vitals. Even nurses and doctors get time off, but as the parents, we don't. We sometimes get respite in the form of nurse or personal care attendant. And for the really lucky ones, sometimes a family member will step in and step up to help too. But this isn't an overwhelming majority of special needs households.  So how do you give a break to a parent who really can't...

We have a 4 yr old, a 2 yr old, and 2 babies ... grocery shopping can get CRAZY. And don't even think about looking to Pinterest - I don't have the time or energy to do grocery bingo cards or come up with elaborate activities each week. But I love grocery shopping! Well, not really in and of itself, but grocery shopping with my girls is usually one of our favorite things to do. Here are some simple tricks I've used to make our shopping trips enjoyable.  Be Prepared. I usually look at my calendar and do a rough meal plan and create a quick grocery list from that. I include things like "3 types of fruit, 5 veggies and 2 kid...

November is here, and it feels like Christmas is right around the corner. We just finished celebrating Halloween, which was so much fun with our two boys. I love going to the pumpkin patch, picking out Halloween costumes, trick or treating with friends, and all the other festivities. We had a blast! And now when I look at our December calendar, I see that it is about to fill up with school, church and family activities. And I LOVE Christmas!! I start singing Christmas carols sometime in September because I just can't help it. I love to decorate and all of the traditions, and making special memories. But at the beginning of November, I just want to stop. I...

I love Christmas. I love decorating my tree, buying and wrapping Christmas gifts, and the number of traditions that mean so much to my family. Retailers have been offering Christmas products since before Halloween (we literally saw the days until Christmas sign at Wal-Mart on Halloween while the workers were passing out candy!). It seems like the rush to Christmas is a big deal, but I need to press pause this year on Thanksgiving. I need Thanksgiving. I need Thanksgiving. More specifically, I need to give thanks for my many, many blessings to be reminded of just how good things are. This has been a tremendously tough year on my little family, with a lot of changes happening in a short amount of...

 HELP WANTED No formal experience required. Hours are flexible, but “on call.” Work at home in your PJs. Pay is not great and the benefits will change your life   Eight years ago, my husband and I decided that I would pull back from my interior design business to answer this “stay at home mom” ad. I envisioned the perfect 9 to 5, where my work involved kissing babies, mommy and me Pilates, girlfriend lunch dates with our quiet well-mannered mini-me’s, Netflix watching, nap taking, profession that was too good to refuse. Four and a half kids later (I’m currently pregnant with # 5 as I'm writing this), “too good to refuse” might just be “too good to be true” as I keep thinking “wait, that wasn’t...