Whoops, I just wound up throwing out unopened food that I forgot about, wasting money. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Usually, we are pretty good in this house about cleaning out the fridge and using up items before they expire or go bad. Most Americans throw out about 25 percent of the food that they buy. That is a huge percentage, and I’ve always strived to not be part of that statistic. Our household budget is tight as it is, and the price of food is going higher and higher every moment, it seems, so why waste any … Continue reading →

We have an unofficial saying in our home, “If life gets overwhelming, just add something else to the mix.” Okay, so this really isn’t our saying, but it should be, since that is what we usually wind up doing! The last few weeks have been very busy. In addition to our normal activities, one of my children is called to rehearsal for a musical four to six days each week. Work has picked up a little bit for me as well as some new responsibilities at church. Needless to say, the house and car look like they have both been … Continue reading →

Every time I walk through the dining room, there it is, my big oops. Poked into the corner of the room, next to one of the food pantries is a whitish-grayish triangle, large enough to fit in a couple of small kid feet. Yup, I ruined a part of the dining room floor. It happened the way these thing usually happen, I was trying to multitask past my allotted multitask amount, I had just a few more minutes to go before I had to start making dinner, and then my youngest hurt himself and needed attention. I was trying to … Continue reading →

Summer: hot. Winter: cold. If your home suffers from wild swings in temperature, some thermal mass might do you good. A well insulated home is less prone to wild changes from hot to cold over the course of the day or the year. However, there is another way to moderate a home’s temperature: thermal mass. Thermal mass is a part of the house that is used to store and radiate heat energy. What is thermal mass? It’s a material that’s used for energy storage in hot and cold climates. Materials that are used for thermal mass include adobe, clay, mud, … Continue reading →

If you are a mom and doubt whether what you do makes a difference in your family life, just decide to catch a cold or a stomach flu or something like that. You don’t have to go very far to get your choice of germs. Your local playground will do. Or, you can do as I did. Have your child lick the end of the cart at Target and then when she comes down with something, have her cough in your face several times just to make sure that the germs get a chance to take hold in your body. … Continue reading →

Somewhere between the middle of September and the end of October, the morning and evening routines started to get out of whack. The kids bedtime tended to drift further and further into the evening, and the chaos in the morning started to increase. From tired melt downs to kids who forgot their homework folders or lunch, it was time to get things back into a routine and do it right away. Our family tends to be more on the creative side and less on the structured side. A house full of free spirits with no sense of time will ruin … Continue reading →

My daughter has been wanting an American Girl Doll for at least the last three years. She pours over the catalogue (that is sent a couple of times a year and addressed to the previous occupants) like the contestants from the Biggest Loser would do to the Godiva catalogue. She knows all of the names of the girls, plus the names of their friends. She has read all of the books. I don’t mind the idea of the American Girl Dolls. My daughter has developed a passion for reading chapter books from them, has learned a lot about history, and … Continue reading →

A real live tree can be a wonderful addition to your home during the Christmas holidays. There is nothing that can quite beat the smell of a fragrant evergreen. Whether you go out into the woods and chop your own, select one from a Christmas Tree farm, or pick one up at one of the numerous road side stands or home improvement stores, you’ll want to keep your tree looking and smelling as fresh as possible for the holidays. Is your tree precut? If so, make sure that you trim another half an inch off of the bottom of the … Continue reading →

We have a new person “living” in our house. He goes by the name of Mario. Mario joins another roommate called Pokemon. Well, at least Mario is generally only one person, except when his friends Yoshi and the Princess visit. Pokemon on the other hand, is actually a whole tribe of friends, or actually several tribes, since, as I am learning, you have to have the right Pokemon series. Pokemon Silver is not the same as Pokemon Ruby. The thing that I like about Mario, is he is kind enough to confine himself to one spot, generally the living room, … Continue reading →

Well, it finally happened. One of my children threw up (several times) in the middle of a busy grocery store. Now I can let out a sigh of relief. After all, I passed some sort of mom milestone, so it shouldn’t ever happen again, right? It is an event that I had anticipated with some dread. I’ve heard so many stories from other moms, who had to stand there, covered in vomit, while other shoppers looked at them as those they were bad moms, responsible for the fact that there child was getting sick in the cereal aisle. Don’t those … Continue reading →