A new TIME report discusses the health benefits of having a dog or cat in the home with infants to reduce allergies.
Based on what I read, a study found babies – well, boys anyway – are less likely to have animal allergies later in life if they grow up in a home with a cat or a dog.
Our 10-year-old dog – a lazy pug named Jasmine – was our first “child.” She arrived about two years before the kids, so all three of them have had her to love on …

Welcome to parenting, momma.
Now the real texts arrive.
I haven’t tested this, but it caught my attention, so I decided to pass along the information.
The National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition is offering free, health education via cell phones. When parents sign up for Text4baby, they will receive a weekly message timed to their child’s due date or birth date for their child’s first year. Topics will range from nutrition to immunizations to birth defect prevention.
The texts are offered for free through a partnership with many cell phone plans.
When phone users …

I love reading blogs. Sometimes my sleep deprivation is more from time spent reading than time spent caring for kiddos at night.
And I’m not alone. I knew I wasn’t. But I’d never gone on a search for East Valley mom bloggers.
Until now.
We made a call out there for bloggers. I love the ones we’ve found. What’s fun is many of them have niche topics they dive into. They write about motherhood, but also about blooming gardens and raising chickens in the desert (neither of which I’ve tried!). They’re crafting, caring …

My kids and I got an invite to a sneak peek into a children’s store opening here in the Valley (I’ll give you a clues: A mouse with big ears) last night.
I knew it meant we would be out late.
I knew it meant we would probably NOT get to the meeting I wanted to go to at church.
I knew it meant eating on the go, coming home to a PILE A MILE HIGH of dirty dishes at home and risking having cranky kids.
But we did it anyway.
A dear friend has …

My daughter is in LOVE with flip flops.
Being an Arizona baby, I suppose there is no surprise here. If she could, she’d wear them year-round.
Despite my urging, she’s worn them bicycle riding, running around at the park and climbing trees.
This morning my daughter tried to slip out the door in her flip flops.
Fact is, they’re not banned at school. But the students are not allowed to use the playground equipment if they’re in flip flops. That, one would think, would be fodder enough.
Apparently not quite.
“Absolutely not!” I said when I …

I hear the first footsteps at 6:30 a.m. Sunday.
My son comes to my pillow and crawls next to me.
“Cuddle time!” he says.
Being the first to rise, he steals that time to sneak in some “mommy time” before his sisters fight for my attention.
A few minutes later, we’re all downstairs.
“Can we play the Wii?”
It’s Mother’s Day morning. My mothering is in full swing. The baby wakes up and joins us. It’s time for a new diaper and rice cereal and pancakes for the family.
We take turns paying the games, then we …

“Bad day! Bad day! Bad day!”
Jackie Chan’s animated character says this often as he’s chased by demons and enemies in a show my children love to watch on Netflix.
I found myself repeating those words all morning.
It started with a poke in the eye and continued with late appointments, major irritations (that are really minor inconveniences) and a long conversation about my children.
(I’ll spare you the details but wouldn’t you be annoyed if you went to see a doc that took six weeks to schedule only to find out test …

I found myself thinking about my grandparents’ porch swing this past week.
As days grow longer, my kids and I are spending more time outdoors. Summer is around the corner. We better enjoy the weather while we can here in Arizona.
Growing up, summers often meant a trip to Indiana to see my mom’s parents.
With each visit, there were two guarantees: Papa would host a fish fry and I would seek out the porch swing.
My nine cousins and two siblings and I never fought for the swing (or maybe I just don’t …

OK, brace yourself. Five weeks from today is Thanksgiving. Christmas is nine weeks from Saturday. My son started his Christmas wish list a month ago! (Thankfully since sales have started and grandparents are asking…) I have scheduled our family’s Christmas photo shoot (Thank you Capture Life photography). I’ve started talking to family about Thanksgiving (we have gone out of town the past few years, but I’m working this year). My sister has bought her plane tickets to come visit (YEA!). I found a few websites that send me reminders of …

Today is National Day on Writing. I found this out while researching a story that took me to the U.S. Department of Education website. I’m taking the challenge a teacher posted there to write a six-word autobiography (supposedly inspired by Hemingway). Perhaps you can challenge your own kids (or yourself). Share your post here.
This is mine: Mom of three. Lover of life.