parenting

Thanks again to Simple Mom for a great post on The Art of Listening in Relationships (click this blog title for the full article). Following is a summary of the article and the parts that spoke to me … The quality of our lives depends largely on the quality of our relationships. To a large extent, the quality of our relationships depend on the quality of our communication. The real issue is — how do you handle the messages sent between you? Especially the ones involving messages you don’t like, or ones with which you disagree.It’s through speaking and listening

Today’s assignment that I chose to accept from Mama’s Losin’ It‘s assignment desk is to “mommy play dates? What’s your experience with mom dating?“. I have a home daycare. Other mother’s often leave my house grateful for only having one (or two) children. They also “don’t know how I can do it with so many toddlers under 3”. Stop telling me that, please, people! It is my J-O-B for crying out loud. Don’t sit there and pity me because I have to make money to feed my children! This is the best compromise I could think up to stay home

Today is my/our fifth wedding anniversary. Wow! Time is a-moving. Our youngest is 19 months and our eldest is 3.5 years old. How is it that we have two children and a house and such different lives from when we first met? And how is it that we still seem to be on the same page? Often you hear of couples who grow apart after years and different life experiences together (we have been together for 7 years this November). I am thrilled to say that we are still happy and moving forward together in our life journey. We might

Thank you to Simple Marriage for this post on The Biggest Lie Many Parents Live By (and sometimes as spouses). Here is a summary but click on the article title for the full original post. Being a parent is overwhelming at times. Endless schedules, teachable moments, messes to clean up, meals to prepare, laundry to fold, and moments to lose your cool. Take comfort in knowing that you’re not alone. Countless parents are in the same boat. And all of us are in this boat due to two things. First is our own emotional reactivity (which is our own worst

My daughter (3 years old) did not run to the side of the shed during a play date and pee. My son (1 year old) does not try to poke out the eyes of his little girl friends. The redeeming moment of the day was when Ava, completely unprompted, said to me “thank you for taking me to school and thank you for signing me up for camp. I had a lot of fun”. Wow! Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone

These days I am working on simplifying marriage with my hubby. Life goes by so fast that I don’t want to wake up one day with the kids grown and out of the house and not knowing who he is or who I am. I’ve been doing a lot of personal growth and in that have realised I need to also pay attention to my relationships, starting with my husband. I have mentioned the Simple Marriage blog before as I believe Corey provides fantastic content that starts my “think-on” (my word, you get it don’t you?). Michael Smalley guest posted

We are starting to get ready for our two week summer vacation. Annually we spend one week at my in-laws who are 20 minutes from the beach and the second week at my parents who have a cottage as well as a pool at their home. Since the kids are getting older and much more active, sitting at the grandparents’ for two weeks inclusively is not as desirable an option as it once was. Hence my quest for a fairly inexpensive and planned vacation. Thanks to Mandi @ Organizing Your Way for leading me to Amanda at Mommy’s Idea Book.

This week’s question: What are your plans for the weekend? My children are having a bit of an early weekend at my parents’ place (bless my Mom & Dad) and therefore, hubby and I are catching up on some much-needed sleep. I think we even had a bit of a conversation last night without a young one taking over or making us forget our train of thought! I also appreciated the distance from the kids as I am pretty excited to see them after a day or two and some rest has ensued. Anyhow, back to the original question …

My sister-in-law, Caralin Ruth, took these photos of me. I was really impressed with the results – and the shoot was so much fun! Too bad Ava puked just before the shoot and was crying the whole time while Daddy held her back. A true “more than a mom” photo shoot, I’d say. If you like these photos, don’t forget to join the photo contest on my site and you could win a session like this too!This giveaway is now closed

(Me before vacation) It is 12:30AM. The kids and husband are asleep. Why am I not? My mind is whirring with random thoughts. I think it all started when vacation did. I seem to have really needed this break or “freedom”. Should I feel guilty that I am pleased to have some me time without clingy children all day? That I am relishing, perhaps even more than the grandparents themselves, that the children are visiting with their extended families and I’m taking a back burner and a much needed rest from the rigors of daily life and responsibility? I’m realizing