Sometimes, life catches up with you.
That’s been very true the last few weeks. So this is me, apologizing, for being silent on the blog.
Do you blog? Do you find you have dozens of ideas about what to write, but sometimes fail to get them down? Or do you start to write and then think, “Why would anyone care about this?”
Or do you actually write it, only to have your computer eat it?
Maybe it’s just blog burnout?
I think I’ve had a bit of all of that the last few weeks, not …

Growing up, I remember clearly two family members calling me Shelley: My grandparents. My mom would use the name sometimes; apparently often enough that my future husband adopted it.
In turn, his family adopted that name as well. Not so often in speaking directly to me, but in referring to me: “Shelley said we’re doing dinner at 6.” or “Shelley asked me to pick up the kids.”
Or my favorite, “Aunt Shell, can you pick me up from school?” (I’m ALWAYS Aunt Shell.”)
Friends, too, have adopted different names for me. My best …

As I look back at the weekend, I’m thankful for my time with family. Saturday found us at our school’s fall festival, a soccer game (hey, they lost, but they played hard!) and a movie. My mom came over to watch the three kids while my husband and I went out to celebrate 13 years of marriage! (Whoa, how did THAT happen so fast?).
Sunday we ran errands, played at home and visited with friends.
How did Monday come so fast?

Welcome November! It’s the month of giving thanks. As a mom, I have an abundance of gifts around me that I’m thankful for: my children, my husband, our home and amazing family that surround us.
I’m hoping this month to instill in the children that sense of thanks as well. I’ve seen two ideas recently to help with that. One is from Project Life. The other is from Better Homes and Garden last month (I could not find the link, but it’s a cork board in a frame with a family’s …

I’m sitting outside a coffee shop, feeling the heat of the Valley’s summer start to bare down – and it’s only 9 a.m.
I miss our vacation.
For 10 days, the kids and I enjoyed the coolness of the pines at my parent’s cabin “up north.” We waited anxiously for the afternoon rains to come in. Our adventures took us hiking through the trees, looking for every color of the rainbow in the flowers around us. We went fishing, did crafts, read books and actually had sit down meals together.
Hopefully in the …

There are crazy mornings. And then there are comical ones.
Most times, they are one-in-the-same.
Like Monday: I left my phone upstairs so I missed the multiple calls and messages from my friend/babysitter that she was ill.
I didn’t check my phone until after my shower. And that was just 10 minutes before I had to take the big kids to school.
But I called another dear friend. “Remember our conversation about your offer to babysit in an emergency? It’s an emergency.”
She didn’t hesitate: What time? Where?
So after getting the three kids to their …

Last night, my kids came home and saw the notes I’d written them on the whiteboard (part of my monthlong plan to tell them why I love them).
They enjoyed them. My daughter asked me to read my note to her several times. I then got started feeding my baby and helping my son with homework.
My daughter, 6, was quietly working at the whiteboard. I assumed she was writing numbers, a new activity for her.
But then I found her message to me.
It was her turn to share the love!

I’m in love.
Completely. Addictively. In. Love.
That’s what I’m sharing this month. My love for with the ones I live with.
I left a note on the white board listing the reasons I love them today.
For my husband, for how he makes me smile.
For my son, his sense of humor.
For my daughter, her zest for life.
For my baby, her smiles (Really, they’re nonstop. Her doctor said to her yesterday while diagnosing an ear infection, “Stop smiling! You’re supposed to be sick. You should have named her ‘Smiley.’”)
Sure, it’s not easy with three …

Yup, it’s official. It costs more to raise a child today than when my parents were growing up.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest report, http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/CRC/crc2009.pdf, compares the 1960 and 2009 expenses of raising a child in a two-child family in today’s dollars.
The bottom line: a 22 percent increase.
The report looks at housing, food, transportation, health care costs and more. Health costs have doubled. Child care costs have “spiked” with the increase of two-working parent families.
What’s the biggest expense in your household? Where are you spending more money?
And how are you …

As my kids and I drove along the I-10 this weekend, my son saw the mountains and asked, “Mom, where’s the snow?”
It was the first of many such “snow” conversations in our house this weekend. I don’t know what got into the three other members of the family, but as I enjoyed the sunshine, they had their minds on a white winter.
First came that comment from my 7-year-old. I went on to explain that while it’s snowing pretty much everywhere else in the country, we won’t be seeing snow here …