My three year old has a bad cold. He usually sounds really cute but the cuteness is almost unbearable with a stuffy nose. Even his future preschool teacher said, "Wow, he's really cute!" Well, the poor guy, who I have been referring to as coughing boy, is really stuffed up and has sniffles and is coughing like crazy. He just had a sniffling and coughing fit and I asked him if he was okay. He replied, "I'm okay. I just have snickles." I personally have never heard of a "snickle" b...

We hosted an Easter Egg Hunt last year and it ended up being so much fun we decided to make a tradition of it. Last year we started out with the idea of having a hunt for our boys and their cousin the day before Easter followed by a family brunch. I soon caught wind that other friends in the neighborhood didn't have plans for a hunt. Our city has one but it is huge and early. We are not patient or morning people We invited the neighbor friends, they each brought 12 filled eggs per ch...

I got a haircut today and it reminded me how much better I feel when I feel I look presentable.  This thought lead me to write about the Locks of Love program.  A couple of years ago my hair was quite long and I asked my stylist if I could donate it.  My salon works with the Locks of Love program and knew all of the requirements for donation. I have close realtives that have struggled with hair loss and a neighbor friend who lost her's following chemo for cancer.  These la...

Happy Father's Day to all of the Dads out there.  I especially want to wish a wonderful day to my Dad and my husband (who has become an incredible dad).  Like the saying goes "Any dick can be a father but it takes a real man to be a Dad". My Dad is a classic father.  He worked a physically and mentally difficult job the entire time I was growing up.  He would come home at the same time every night, shower, have dinner and read or watch television.  Weekends were for h...

I recently read a very powerful story in Parents magazine about a woman who was forced to deal with the loss of her baby who was born at 23 weeks.  The part that really stuck with me was when she talked about not being able to put herself in other's shoes prior to this experience.  That ability is called Empathy and it seems as though a lot of people just don't have it. I was impressed that she recognized the fact that she always had good intentions toward other people in their time...

I don't know if many people struggle with this, but it is an ongoing thing for me.  I know who I want to be, inside and out.  I recognize both my strengths and weaknesses.  One of my greatest weakenesses however is self discipline. I know that to be the person I want to be on the outside, I need to exercise.  Why do I have so much trouble just doing it?!  On mornings that I get up before everyone else and use the treadmill and eliptical machines or go for a walk, I fe...

I think most people dial a phone number with very little effort or attention.  I want to bring it to everyone's attention that it is always an obscene hour somewhere on the planet and you could really apply undo stress by dialing a wrong number.  Please be sure what you are dialing. What inspired this cautionary note?  I was in a very deep sleep when awoken at 4AM by the ringing of my bed side phone.  My brain instantly thinks "Oh dear God!  Who died?!" when the phone...

I usually dread Mondays so I am trying to point out to myself the good things.  A more recent favorable thing to make Mondays easier is the new stuff that is always posted on JU.  It seems as though most of us get pretty busy over the weekend and JU gets pretty slow.  Come Monday, new stuff galore! Another thing about Monday is the sense of a new start.  Sure, you trashed the house and really screwed up your diet over the weekend.  Put it behind you and start anew on ...

I had a really enjoyable weekend. Saturday I mowed for two hours. Got the entire lawn done with barely a drop of gas left for the mower. I showered and got dressed just in time for the sitter to arrive. My hubby had to work but I picked him up and we met some friends for dinner. We ate at an Irish place and I had something called a Boxty. Ever had one? They are kind of like a burrito made with a potato pancake and it had a strong blue cheese sauce. Dinner was nice (I didn't have to ...

My article regarding religion has really gotten me thinking about Heaven and Hell. This lead me to think about things I love (Heavenly) and things I hate (Hellish). Here are some off the top of my head: Heavenly Loving my hubby (in every way. trying to put this gently for those who know us) Hugs & Kisses from my boys Giggling and singing of my boys Smell of rain Chocolate!! Coffee That warm, drowsy feeling you have when you first awake from a good night sleep Warmth of sunsh...

My 9yr old son always seems to have deep thoughts right before bed and right when he gets up in the morning.  He usually has interesting questions regarding how things work or why God made things they way they are.  I just felt like sharing his latest with you.  Yesterday he woke up and immediately asked "How come in baseball a strike is a bad thing but in bowling it's a really good thing?" Clever, isn't he.  Can you answer that one?

Maybe it's because I think of my cell phone as just another tool I use to get through each day, but I really don't see the big hoopla over ringtones.  I picked one of the rings that came with my phone.  I can see why you wouldn't want everyone's phone ringing the same way since that causes the, "everyone check to see if it's yours" problem.  But that is the extent of my interest in ringtones. I am aware people shop for songs to use as their ringtone.  I've seen the commerc...

We have a local church that has a corner of land that you can see very well off from a major intersection.  Each Halloween they display a graveyard of crosses which are supposed to represent the number of abortions performed in the US each day.  The only reason I know this is I inquired.  The church is soooo misguided!  First of all, I don't think the "graveyard" is effective anyway but it certainly isn't when displayed on Halloween!  Everyone just assumes it's a Hal...

I was just thinking about Halloween since my boys have been talking about what they want to be this year.  My favorite costume, although I had a lot of great ones, had to be the alien costume my mom made in 4th grade.  It had an arm made out of dryer tubing with a rubber glove sewed on the end sticking out of the middle of my back.  People kept shaking the hand on my back   My put crazy braids in my hair, painted extra mouths and eyes on my face and I loved it! So what wa...

I don't know if your community has this but ours starts football and cheerleading at the 4th or 5th grade.  Our neighbor friend has a 5th grade daughter who is in cheerleading.  She is a beautiful, sweet little girl.  I had concerns about the peer affect of such a thing but figured since it wasn't school related that it probably wouldn't be too bad. Well, today this little lady showed up for me to take her to school in her cheerleading outfit.  I was a bit shocked.  S...