When planning a baby shower, the menu is a top consideration, as we all know how the quality of food can make or break a party! There are many factors that should go into your consideration of baby shower menu ideas, such as the venue, the time of day and year, cost, and, especially, the mom-to-be’s preferences!
Life is hard – beautiful, sweet, precious, amazing, thrilling even; but so very hard. It never becomes more apparent as to just how hard it is until you are a mother; responsible in every way for the well-being of another tiny human.
Even before becoming mothers, women wear so many different hats. We are cooks, maids, friends, daughters, therapists, employees, managers, etc. We tend to stick together, to find our tribe and to be there for one another through thick and thin. Which is never more important that when we do become parents.
I remember as a little girl – saving all of the ‘used-almost-to-the-bottom’ candles for the whole year to use for Hallowe’en. Our jack o’ lanterns would house a cornucopia of bright red and gold Christmas candles and a few yellow Easter ones. I would be a bit rattled that my beautiful pumpkin was getting red wax dripped all over, and then completely dejected that whenever I passed my own house (as I was doing the neighborhood candy marathon) the pumpkin would be dark. A gust of wind had just spoiled a child’s excitement at boasting artistic achievements to her friends. I’d quickly apologize and run up to grab a lighter or matches. And I can’t remember being anything other than a princess in chiffon so that + matches was clearly a bad idea…
I wish it were 2018. If this were last fall and I had known more about the flu vaccine for seniors, I would have done things differently. When my mom died unexpectedly on Christmas morning, the reasons why were unclear. What was 100% evident is that I thought of her as living for years to come. She was the master of her home. Vibrant. Feisty. Perhaps it was child-like denial, but I didn’t know how unwell she was. Sadly, I hadn’t yet researched the myriad of special solutions for seniors that can help maintain good health.
My tween wants a cell phone. Correction, she wants a cell phone that allows her to text, play games online, send emails and lastly, make phone calls. Yesterday, she told me that more and more of the girls in her class (We’re talking 4th grade folks!) are getting cell phones for their 10th birthdays. She doesn’t want to wait a year. She wants one now. The question is, is my tween ready for a cell phone?
People talk about how kids obsessed with a video game are robbed of their childhoods. There are countless articles out there about how terrible technology is for children. This isn’t one of them. We’re a tech forward family. My husband and I both have jobs that rely on technology in some way and I’ve always been a gadget geek.
My son learned about Yo-Kai Watch last year. Grade 1 was rough for him. He felt isolated in school, made few friends and was picked on. He really connected to the story of the Yo-Kai and their friend Nate and we got the game for his Nintendo 3DS.
Halloween is such a fun time of year, and I love it because it’s just so creative. From picking out the perfect costumes for your kids, hosting parties with fun spooky treats with friends and family and making crafts that celebrate the season while having fun making things with your hands. We don’t get a lot of trick or treaters where we are, but we do get some and it’s always fun to pick out treats to hand out and to see all the creative, adorable and spooky costumes on the kids that come to our door. And then there’s decorating the pumpkin. Decorating pumpkins is so much fun (and so is roasting and eating the seeds, yum!) – but some people feel really stuck about how to decorate them.
We’ve all handed our phones over to quiet down an antsy child in line. Sometimes the easiest answer is the right answer in the moment and a little Candy Crush never hurt anyone. The ends justify the means, no judgement here. We totally get it. While a little bit of screen time isn’t the end of the world, kids often fall in love with their parents’ mobile devices and it can spell (humorous) trouble. Here are five hilarious signs your kid might be using your phone just a little bit too much:
I know every word to the theme song for Paw Patrol. I can recite Goodnight Moon forwards, backwards, upside down, and inebriated. I spend the majority of my days creating with play dough, kicking balls, singing nursery rhymes, and playing make believe games with plastic toys. There are a myriad of reasons behind my participation in all of these activities, the most important being that they interest my children. I repeat. They interest my children. When the sun goes down and the babies are tucked in to bed, you will not find me re-reading Goodnight Moon for the kajillionth time. As it turns out, I have a few interests of my own and none of them involve pups who save the day.
After travelling to Beaches Resorts three times, both in Turks and Caicos and Negril, Jamaica, I’m convinced that despite these all-inclusive meccas providing being luxury-level vacations, they are also very budget-friendly. I have 7 awesome reasons why. In addition, there is freedom and relief when you arrive at a resort that gives the highest level of service and quality, and you need not open your wallet the entire time you vacation. It’s as if the relaxation has double the effect.
