My family has had quite a year of multiple hospital visits (heart surgery, anyone?) and ongoing misfortunes that would render even Murphy (as in the “Law”) speechless.
I resolved to kick 2011 to the curb by doing my holiday shopping and preparations early so I could feel like I had at least something under control.
Oh, how [...]

I have a picture of it, but you actually had to see it to believe it. My parents’ home, filled to the brim with holiday merriment and various people. Some related, some not, and in keeping with Southern tradition…some we’re still not sure about.

Despite the fact I’m familiar with many of the cutting-edge social media technologies, I am often hesitant to adopt them because I’m already too busy with blogging, Twitter, Facebook and my iPhone.
However, my latest obsession Pinterest.com has surpassed them all.
And believe me, that’s really saying something.
I’ve gone from being a bored cook to being [...]

With the holidays upon us, I realize questioning the excessive amount of toys our children have is not the most timely topic.
Or maybe there is no better time to talk about it.
When I first became a mom, I purchased toys with the same vengeance as a bull set loose in a China shop. If it [...]

Ah, the question that has haunted women, particularly moms, likely originating from the Fall of Man as Eve pulled the first leaf from her closet of nature, looking around, thinking “I have nothing to wear” and feeling certain that the foliage was unflattering in most every way – unfashionable and adding ten pounds in all the [...]

On Cyber Monday
Shopping while in pajamas
encouraged by all.
Nobody will know
I fill my baskets with things
Probably won’t buy.
“Free Shipping!” stores claim.
But I must spend hundred bucks?
No thank you. Really.
Nothing makes me scream

This post may not be as salacious as you might think…
I sleep with a woobie. In the cold months. And my husband doesn’t mind.
What, you may ask, is a woobie? It’s a loaf-of-bread-sized bag of millet or buckwheat covered in a flannel casing. Ours were made by one of my students years ago. Pop one [...]

Can you wipe?
No job is more humbling than motherhood. It’s the role where you find yourself wiping people and things on an hourly basis. When I think about how many cloths I’ve palmed then poised over faces, bottoms, countertops, carpets, hands, feet, toilet seats, windows, sinks, crockpot inserts, lampshades, tummies, armpits, chins and chins and [...]

The power of knowing how to sew, even with just the basic know-how, opens the door to a whole new world. I had taken this skill for granted most of my life – maybe even denied it a bit during my preteen years – advertising a sewing hobby at such a critical stage could be sudden death to the already limited fashion [...]

The Subjects: My ungrateful twin boys; ages 8.
The Hypothesis: Putting the twins’ belongings in garbage bags will inspire them to take better care of their things.
The Experiment: The Garbage Bag Treatment was a tactic that was successfully utilized by my own parents. If I came home from school to find my room empty and [...]