About a month ago, I found my daughter working intently to complete an obviously very difficult homework assignment–except she wasn’t really “working” and it wasn’t homework at all. It was her Christmas list. I miss the days when she was not literate enough to write out a Christmas list. I…
Whenever I am schlepping my kids back and forth to Pelican Park for sporting events, I pass by Northlake Nature Center. I’ve always been a bit curious about this hidden gem of woods and wetlands that stretches along Highway 190. I checked out their website to see the different event…
Last weekend I was at church with my family. As we filed one by one into the pew, my 2-year-old hit her head. Then the three-month-old started to cry. We, as usual, felt like a spectacle. The lady sitting directly in front of us looked back at me with a…
Every once in a while it’s good to know you aren’t alone when dealing with difficult relatives. And when you start raising children, things you used to overlook seem a lot more important. We asked our friends and readers for a few examples of grandparents behaving badly so we could…
Each year for our birthdays, my siblings and I were very disappointed to receive a card and an orange piece of paper from my grandparents. We would hand the orange piece of paper over to my dad, never to be seen again and it didn’t feel like much of a…
Two years ago, the “low tire pressure” light came on in my husband’s car. The vehicle was only 2 1/2 years young and still had fairly low mileage, so he took it to the nearby dealership. When they recommended that he should purchase all new tires (and we heard the…
LICE-A-PHOBIA I’m itching as I type. Just the thought of tiny parasites crawling on myself and my children is enough to make me shave all of our heads. That itching sensation catches hold of me each time the dreaded lice note comes home from school. On occasion, not one but…
When my family moved to the Northshore, I knew we needed to find new doctors, the location of the nearest local library, and neighborhood restaurants that were friendly to our young and often boisterous family. We recently ran into a new “new” that we needed – a salon or barber…
Planning for a beach trip used to mean packing a bag and beach chair for yourself, and identifying the nearest grocery and liquor stores. But once you have a baby, you have to plan to tow a lot more gear with you too. The term “vacation” takes on a whole…
Perhaps you find yourself like many parents today, struggling to shovel dinner into your kids’ mouths as you’re schlepping them back and forth between sports practices, gymnastics meets, dance rehearsals, and various other extracurricular activities. Or perhaps you have toddlers hanging on you throughout the day and don’t have a…