Oh, I love good craft ideas.
So I was so happy when I looked over at Finley and Oliver on our EV Mom Bloggers Connect page.
There are not one, but two adorable Valentine’s Day crafts. You have to check them out. Plus, they look super easy.

Moms, if you need a break — and a massage — here’s your chance.
The next Mom’s Nite Out event is coming Wednesday. The event is hosted and organized by Choosing Love blogger (and EV Mom Bloggers Connect contributor) Wendy Wright.
Every mom who attends the event will receive a free chair massage at Mom’s Nite Out courtesy of BackFit Chiropractic & Rehab. Moms will also get a goodie bag of giveaways, learn more about local vendors and get a chance to chat with other moms. Food and drink available for purchase, …

As many moms can attest, sometimes we are the last ones to bed at night, last to eat breakfast (if we eat at all), last to go to the doctor when we are sick. Sometimes a hat substitutes for a shower and “me time” is found in the 40 minutes of dance class once a week.
I’m guilty of all of the above. But I know mentally, physically and spiritually I want (and need) to do a better job taking care of me so I can be a better mom, a …

The holiday decorations are scattered on the dining room table, gathered from various rooms in the house. There are baskets of clean laundry in the loft (and the hallway and my room). Dirty dishes overflow the sink.
Rather than tackling these tasks today (while caring for an ill toddler), we grabbed shoes.
With new skateboards in hand and nature all around, the kids are playing outdoors. It’s gorgeous in Arizona today. We are going to enjoy it.
Everything else can wait.

My kids are at home with daddy this week as I finish writing a few stories.
To keep them busy, and from arguing, I handed them tape, scissors (gasp!), wrapping paper, and the gifts we’ve made for grandparents this morning.
The fun part? They realized they had to work together to wrap the gifts. The not-so-fun-part, my 6-year-old was being hyper critical of the job she was doing.
“It’s not pretty. They’re going to hate it.”
I assured her they wouldn’t. I’ve never had my kids help wrap gifts – mainly because I’m such …

Each year, I try to remember and give my children’s teachers a gift. Most years, it’s a coffeehouse gift card. Sometimes, we make it personal. I try to remember the after-school care instructors and bus driver, too.
But this year, we’re going homemade. Inspired by my middle child’s desire to make holiday goodies, we’ve made more than three dozen chocolate “pops” and chocolate covered preztels. The latter was decided after a friend called Friday exclaiming, “I have chocolate and preztels. Want to get together?” We had eight kids at the house …

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 …

You know what happens when you get your car detailed? You find your missing glasses and Bluetooth, a dozen books the kids are reading, more than twice that many pencils and pens, and more single socks than you know what to do with.
I live in my car, it seems, some weeks. And as I drive from home to school to preschool to work to gymnastics to shopping to grandparents and beyond, items begin to collect in every crevice and pocket of the minivan.
I thought I had done a fairly good …

Last night I took the kids out to eat, sort of. We hit a local Mexican restaurant for take out, but I did have to take all three kids in with me to collect my food. I didn’t think I could handle all three by myself eating in the restaurant (Been there, done that.  I’m usually exhausted afterward.)
My kids are fairly well behaved, but very active at restaurants, so we just don’t do it that much. And when we do, we tend to pick out places that are “kid friendly.”
I …

What’s your escape when the house is messy, the dishes are calling your name and you have no idea what’s for dinner?
Life is chaotic. It’s messy. Sometimes, it can be loud.
I felt all those things this weekend. So I sought an escape.
I threw on my shoes, put baby in her stroller and stepped out the door.
My pulse calmed as I stepped outdoors. A sweetness filled the air in the late afternoon. It wasn’t quiet outside (yes, I AM the mom whose children started the water gun fights), but there was …