Dawn
Accepting the Grief That Comes With the Joy of My Children Growing Up
I have been dreading the new school year for a while now. This is nuts, because I love the new school year–new books, new supplies (office supplies are my guilty pleasure!), new clothes and...
Buckle Up! Parenting a Teen Driver
I grew up in Missouri, and I remember my dad giving me the driver's manual for my 15th birthday. Thank goodness, too, because the day I turned 15.5 years, he took me up to...
Living Like the Dutch: 5 Ways to Love Summer with Your Children
"Summertime, and the livin' is easy," or so Gershwin wrote. While there are plenty of moms out there who are anxious about the ten week break from school and scheduled life, I know there...
Cut the Cord: Life Without Television
Fishing poles, enchanted cow sharks, and pretend fish bait.
Our eight- and five-year-old kids were being supervised through the windows overlooking our backyard. My husband, Bryan, was called out to fix the broken fishing pole,...
3 Colorful, Fun, and Easy Activities to Celebrate Leprechaun Day
Back when I was an in-home child care provider, I attended a training that was focused on play-based learning. The speaker told us all about this really fun experience she'd had with her children, all centered...
Date Night Ideas for Valentine’s Day (and all year long!)
One of my most challenging attributes is gifting–I am the worst person to shop for. As easy-going as I feel about myself, I actually dislike most material gifts. Birthdays, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Christmas...
New Year–Who are you? 4 Steps to Be You
Welcome to the new year! The year so many have been looking forward to, especially after the headlines of the previous year continued to affront us with not-so-happy news. I always love the new...
Holiday Traditions: To Do or Not to Do?
It's the holiday season. Time for making memories!
The Expectations
I've always had this picture in my head of the memories from movies and books: all of us snuggled in our cozy clothes and fuzzy blankets,...
Christmas Tree Farms near Iowa City
It is the most wonderful time of the year! We started our family traditions with Halloween trick-or-treating with the neighbors, followed by delicious chili and candy-trading. Thanksgiving follows closely behind, and then next up is getting...
Get Out in the World and Enjoy Life (WITH Your Kids!)
Recently, I attended an event with moms for a moms' night out. As we were standing around, chatting and getting to know one another, I began to realize: I am the worst mother ever....