Lifestyle blogger – cruises, organizing, managing money, and parenting.
Helping teens navigate a divorce situation is something I’ve been wanting to write about for a long time, but it’s an area where I had zero experience. My parents were married until they died and my husband and I have been married for 35 years. So I reached out to an expert for a guest […] Read more…
Parents understand that teenagers can get a bit hard to deal with. They’re in a stage in their lives where they want to explore their independence, which can come off in the wrong way. And if we’re doing a big life transition like moving with teenagers, this can be difficult for them to adjust to. […] Read more…
It seems like just yesterday you were helping your baby get on the bus for kindergarten and now you’re talking to them about the colleges they are interested in attending. Time sure does fly, and while it is easy to get swept up in all of the excitement and changes that are going to happen […] Read more…
One of the most often overlooked parenting challenges is dealing with adult children still living at home with you. It may be that they went out into the world and came back (yo-yo kids) – sometimes with kids or spouses along for the ride. Or maybe they are the “failure to launch” kids who are […] Read more…
Now that it’s been a few years since our sons Eagle Project, I can look back with a bit more perspective. I can see some of the things we did well and a few areas where we pretty much crashed and burned. One thing I can tell you is that these Eagle Projects are HARD. […] Read more…
At My House Kid’s Chores Aren’t FAIR And I’m totally OK with that. As they say, there’s a method to my madness and I’m doing it for a very specific reason. Well, actually a couple of reasons. For one thing, I assign household chores more or less permanently. The reason I do that is for […] Read more…
Cell phone addiction is a real thing, and I can prove it to you! Just take a ride on any freeway. Within 10 minutes you’ll find 3 to 5 people using their cell phones while driving ON THE FREEWAY. Yesterday, I spotted a motorcyclist in the fast lane, driving with one hand, while messing with his […] Read more…
If you have kids, one of the main worries you have is how you’re going to be paying for college for them. College costs have been increasing wildly. So many kids are starting out their lives with huge student loans dragging them down. Or worse, many parents are putting their home or retirement savings at […] Read more…
Here is the 4th post in our New Year’s Motivation series. For most people, parenting is a big part of our lives and all of us want to be a better parent to our children. As the mother of two sons and stepmother to a third, I think I have a bit of experience in […] Read more…
I witnessed an intriguing conversation that popped up in my Facebook feed on the topic of abusive adult children living at home. Since I have a newly adult child (my youngest just turned 18), I thought it was time to talk about it. What are we Tolerating from These Adult Children? This woman was […] Read more…
Here’s the final installment in my organizing kids series. This one is about taking back your mornings. With school-aged kids, it can be a real headache to get them out of bed, pulled together and fed, and somehow off to school on time every morning of the week. As the mom of two ADHD boys, […] Read more…
Is there anything more pesky and annoying than trying to get your kids to do their chores? Unless you were born with that magically organized child (I never had THAT kid!), you are going to be fighting this fight for at least 18 years. According to my favorite behavioral psychologist Brian Wansink, the best way […] Read more…
It occurred to me that in this New Year’s motivational series, I had not included any posts about parenting. So, I am starting a 3-part series here about both parenting and organization – double win! This first one is about helping your kids organize their homework. In the next post we will talk about kids […] Read more…
The Benefits to Raising Early Readers Reading is one of my greatest pleasures, so I was pretty serious about my children learning how to read at an early age. My stepson Ryan was in a Montessori school when my husband and I started dating, so he was an early reader in their program. My middle […] Read more…
Pretty typical picture isn’t it? Not just for teen boys, but for everyone. Seems like all of us are spending major amounts of time staring at electronics of all types these days – not just phones, but iPads, computers, video games, and TV’s. It’s to the point where it is getting a little scary. I […] Read more…