Jan 6, 2020 | Adults, By Stage, Humor, Moms & Dads
By Guest Blogger Kelly Hines Ah, the New Year. The time when everyone scrambles around trying to find something meaningful and life changing to commit themselves to. This year, I’m going to run a marathon! This year, I’m going to lose 50 pounds! This year, I’m going...
Jan 2, 2020 | From the Heart, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads
By Laura Simon I’m not a fan of New Year’s Eve. I can’t remember the last time I stayed up until midnight, unless you count being woken at 12:01 by someone’s enthusiastic fireworks display and mentally chiding them for their disregard of the human need for sleep...
Dec 19, 2019 | Holidays, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Guest Blogger Andrea Ropko This is our elf. Yes, he is, in fact, sitting on a shelf, but he is not to be confused with America’s Rascally Holiday Sweetheart: The Elf on the Shelf. You know the one. The little scamp who eats all the cookies in the quiet of the night...
Nov 28, 2019 | Entertaining, Food & Nutrition, From the Heart, Humor, Moms & Dads
By Kelly Hines My husband and I started dating two weeks before Thanksgiving, and this year marks the twenty-ninth time we have celebrated the holiday together. Twenty-nine years of blended families and arguments over whether it’s called stuffing or dressing (it’s...
Nov 27, 2019 | Babies, By Stage, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Pregnancy & Babies, Raising Children, Toddlers & Preschool, Toddlers & Preschoolers
By Rachel Hoeing My children are currently 14 and 16. It’s been a long, long time since we had babies in our home. But my sister has a one-year-old and an almost three-year-old. (It makes me tired just telling you that.) Being the dutiful older sister, I have watched...
Nov 19, 2019 | From the Heart, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads
By Laura Simon I bought some lipstick at Target last week. That might not seem like anything special, but I haven’t owned lipstick in at least three years. Maybe longer. The last tube I remember having was one of those free samples you get from Clinique, and I haven’t...
Oct 25, 2019 | Family Time, From the Heart, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads, Pregnancy & Babies, Raising Children, Toddlers & Preschoolers, Tweens & Teens
By Guest Blogger Thea DeLoreto, author of the blog The Lint Trap I didn’t know it would be this hard. It is just keeping small humans alive. A little food, some milk, water, get them out of the house regularly, and they should be good to go. Right? RIGHT? But it...
Oct 23, 2019 | Holidays, Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Guest Blogger Laura Simon Halloween is not the reason I expected to have a crisis of motherhood, but here I am. First, my oldest, who has typically been very compliant about wearing whatever costume was easily accessible in the aisle at Target, declared that he...
Oct 19, 2019 | By Stage, Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children, Toddlers & Preschool
By Guest Blogger Ginny Olson, author of MothersRest.com This is a typical conversation in my house. Like every day. Smaller child, watching me hand older child a second piece of toast: “More toast please!” Me: “After you finish your eggs.” Him,...
Sep 23, 2019 | Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Guest Blogger Laura Simon The first house where I lived with my babies didn’t have locks on most of the doors. I replaced the door hardware shortly after we moved in – and after my friend had a truly harrowing experience involving a toddler, and locked door,...
Sep 6, 2019 | Family Time, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family
By Guest Blogger Alyssa Tabacca, author of Driving the Big Van As a college football coach’s wife, I think it necessary to categorize my year into seasons. A lot of how we live our day-to-day life changes based on the season we are in…and it just so happens that...
Aug 27, 2019 | Education, From the Heart, High School & Beyond, Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Guest Blogger Kelly Hines Four days before my oldest child went to college, I bought 14 boxes of tampons and then sat and cried in the grocery store parking lot. Did I cry because I’d just spent a small fortune on feminine hygiene products? Did I cry because I was...
Jul 13, 2019 | Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Guest Blogger Lisa Witherspoon A couple years ago, my husband and I took our three daughters to an event on a local college campus. While there, we walked through one of the older buildings and passed by a bank of payphones. “What are those?” the girls asked. I...
Jun 27, 2019 | By Stage, From the Heart, Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children, Toddlers & Preschool, Toddlers & Preschoolers
By Guest Blogger Jessie Ballard, author of mombunsandmoscato.com You ever feel like you’re just wingin’ it with this whole parenting toddlers thing? Same. So, what do you do when those sweet, chubby, cuddly babies turn into sticky, raging, megaphones of drama and...
Jun 19, 2019 | Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Guest Blogger Ginny Olson You know the expression: Children should be seen and not heard. It’s total bunk. Do not build your parenting around this concept! You will live to regret it. Your kid will draw horses on the wall behind her bed. Or draw all over his...
Jun 9, 2019 | Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Guest Blogger Thea DeLoreto Ah, summer vacation. I see you are back, you Minx. I know you are all popular and everyone loves you. I get it. You are all hot and steamy and fun with your sunshine and your maxi dresses. But like every great super star…you have...
May 25, 2019 | Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads
By Guest Blogger Stephanie Mannuci-Polnak When I’m in the shower I have things to do like pull copious amounts of post-partum shed from the drain, and read and reread all of my one trillion shampoo bottles, so it comes with little surprise that shaving my legs...
May 1, 2019 | Adults, By Stage, From the Heart, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Guest Blogger Jena Penner That’s not a stock image above, that’s my family. At my 25th high school reunion, someone I hadn’t seen since graduation asked for a recap of the past couple decades. Without giving my response much thought I replied, “Oh, ya...
Apr 4, 2019 | Adults, By Stage, Family Time, From the Heart, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Guest Blogger Alyssa Tabacca, author of Driving the Big Van Parents talk about buying their minivan as a right of passage. I could tell you about the day we realized we’d outgrown the mini and traded up to a Big Van. When our wonderful #5 was born we realized we...
Feb 15, 2019 | Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children, Recreation, Travel & Auto Tips
By Laura Simon Three years ago, we bought tablets for my boys, then ages 4 and 5. They were cheap tablets, and we rationalized that they would be helpful on long car trips. Since we live seven hours from family, we make plenty of those. In theory, it worked. But it...
Feb 12, 2019 | Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads, Recreation, Travel & Auto Tips
By Guest Blogger Stephanie Mannuci-Polnak Nothing is the hallmark of motherhood like a minivan. Moms and minivans are like Starbucks in Target, or me in underwear that comes up to my boobs, just a perfect marriage of convenience and comfort. Naturally, when we added...
Jan 29, 2019 | Humor, Marriage & Couples, Moms & Dads
By Kelly Hines “He was taking a bow and the sand would reshape according to the resonance of the vibrations…” That’s where he lost me. We’d been watching a documentary the night before on the expansion of the universe, and my husband was trying to explain what I’d...
Jan 16, 2019 | Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads
By Guest Blogger Stephanie Mannuci-Polnak Gah, when did I get so damn old. Age is an insidious bitch isn’t she. One day you are riding high on beguiled wings of co-ed glory and the next you are rewinding your 35 year old, deflated boobs back into your bra like a...
Jan 4, 2019 | From the Heart, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads
By Guest Blogger Michelle Griffith After I wrote the title of this blog, I pulled out my phone and went to Dictionary.com to look up the true meaning of the word selfish… sel*fish (adj.) 1. devoted to...
Jan 2, 2019 | From the Heart, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads
By Laura Simon I don’t think I’ve ever made a real New Year’s resolution. I’ve made a lot of joking resolutions. And I’ve even made up a few phony resolutions when pressed by friends and students. But I’ve never sat down on New Year’s Day and made a decision that...
Dec 19, 2018 | Holidays, Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family
By Guest Blogger Ginny Olson I’m feeling a little nostalgic these days. Because Sears has gone bankrupt. This may not seem like a reason to cry. But it’s Christmas. And when I was little, Christmas meant the SEARS TOY CATALOG. Who else wants to admit that YOU ARE OLD?...
Dec 18, 2018 | Holidays, Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Laura Simon Here we are, one week from Christmas, and I’m this close to telling my kids Santa isn’t real. I won’t do it, of course, because I know the day is coming when they’ll figure it out on their own and then I’ll be sad. But seriously, the man is becoming...
Dec 5, 2018 | Holidays, Humor, Just for Moms, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family
By Laura Simon When I was a youngish mom of babies, I scoured Pinterest to create a heap of meaningful holiday traditions for my kids. (In case you were wondering, Pinterest was BRAND NEW at that point.) My kids were barely old enough to comprehend anything other than...
Nov 1, 2018 | Adults, Humor, Moms & Dads
By Guest Blogger Misty Nichols, author of Back Porch Bliss Words cannot express how much I love and miss my grandmothers. They were raised in opposite worlds and their lives could not have been more different, but they both loved their families beyond what we felt we...
Oct 26, 2018 | Humor, Moms & Dads, Parenting & Family, Raising Children
By Laura Simon I was digging through my minivan the other day, looking for something I told my children to put in a safe place, when I found all the socks in our house. I’m only slightly exaggerating. It seemed that literally our entire stash of children’s socks – and...
