Every woman should have someone who inspires you to dream.
When I met Patty Leon, I found out she is a scrapbooker. I immediately liked her.
She’s also followed her dreams to own her own store. The busy mom of one 9 year old (a Lego lover like my son) and wife to a busy tech guy had told herself years ago that by the time she reached 30, she would own her own store (or travel to Europe).
That passport didn’t get created, but instead she’s travelled into the path of a businessowner. Less than …

We’ve added a new mom to our mom bloggers page at EVMoms. Check out Janice’s blog when you can! She has lots of giveaways and links for family information. Best idea? See how she turned her dining room table into a chalkboard! Very fun.

So Saturday morning I was by the front door where we leave our backpacks and jackets.
There was an odor.
Moms, you know what I’m talking about.
“What’s that smell!#!” sort of smell.
I sniffed every bag. What mom hasn’t picked up everything and put it to her nose to find out what’s stinky?
I found the source – my son’s backpack. Inside, I found a lunchbag from two or three (or more) days prior. Inside – a VERY dethawed and decaying bag of what WAS frozen fruit. I don’t know why or how it …

So when you’re out of milk, and you have three hungry kids, you run to the store, right? I confess, that exhausted from being up since 4:30 with my toddler, I just loaded them all in the car and went to the store at 8 a.m.
Did I mention I didn’t even have matching shoes on? In fact, I had two left shoes on.
So if you saw me, now you know.

Forgive me. I’m running on fumes – and caffeine.
Thus the quiet absence for a few days – or is it a week? I’m not sure. It’s all running together.
Since my daughter started in a daycare center back in late November, we’ve had pretty much a disease a week – nothing major, thankfully.
It’s been cold, after ear infection, after sinus infection, after stomach bug.
You get the picture.
I wouldn’t give the snuggle time away for anything, but I swear I’ve “slept” in a chair more in the last three nights than in …

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 …

Ah, school lunch.
It’s been topic of many jokes, tough scrutiny and endless questions.
Lately, it’s also been in the headlines because of growing problem with children facing obesity and diabetes at a young age. It’s tough to get kids to eat healthy. And with many children at school now for breakfast and lunch, many school leaders have taken this to heart. Even Michelle Obama is leading an effort to clean up what’s served in school cafeterias.
But according to a recent L.A. Times story, the kids are not only passing on the …

So it’s the night before Thanksgiving. There are clean dishes in the dishwasher. Dirty ones in the sink. My dining room table doesn’t have a tablecloth on it (and hasn’t for weeks). It’s covered in craft supplies, a hair dying kit I really need to use and my daughter’s wig from Halloween (and yes, I think it’s been there since then).
I’ve made three trips to three different grocery stores today. Yesterday, I was at yet ANOTHER grocery store. My plans were to have grandparents over with my family and a …

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?

(Note: I wrote this last night with intention to get it posted to stay up-to-date with my month of “thankful” posts. Life happens! So here it is.)
I’m writing this sitting in my car outside a small schoolhouse. Inside, my son is meeting with a sweet teacher who is helping him grasp multiplication facts and writing; my daughter is sitting with two other students and another wonderful lady as they work on reading. Today, I received notes from both my children’s school teachers about how they’re doing.
I’m so thankful for teachers …