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Pre-solution to the Pre-problem
Desktop wallpaper http://www.GilmoreMemories.com I was reading “Watching Your Teens Favorite TV Shows Is Important“ and it brought back a flood of great memories. I remembered when Kay and I used to watch The Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) together every tuesday night for almost six…...
by Sherry Martz My gift to Renee was my time. Her gift to me was being successful in her life and still calling me when she needs something. No Bad Time To Change A Life Mentoring doesn’t only take place when you’re young, making a difference in…...
This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series My Child... Spritual ReflectionThis poem is a continuation from the first poem, My Child. The page that contains the initial poem, explains my thoughts and why I felt inspired to…...
My Child – A Spiritual Reflection
This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series My Child... Spritual ReflectionThe poem below was inspired by The Shadow Effect movie in combination with my own spiritual growth and self reflection. One of my main takeaways from the movie…...
Are You Really Prepared for A New School Year?
Article compliments of Todd Herrenbruck (Part of Our New Financial Series) You’ve shopped for new clothes, bought their school supplies, enrolled them in after-school activities and arranged the carpool. Congratulations, you’re well on your way to starting the new school year on the right…...
Animal Cruelty As A Behavior Indicator
Featured Guest Article by Sara Puls “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” — Mahatma Gandhi In June of this year, a teenage girl in New York City was charged with…...
Baby Sleep Help | Toddler Sleep Help | Custom Sleep Help - The Baby Sleep Site™
How Many Baby Naps : Sleep Quick Tip
In the beginning, your newborn sleeps most of the time and you don’t have to worry too much about naps. Your newborn’s sleep schedule and patterns are highly unpredictable, usually, so it’s hard to tell if she will have 5 naps or 8 on any given day. You’ve just given...
Your Baby Won’t Sleep – It’s Your Fault
A common theme when I read the first e-mail in a one-on-one consultation or when I first talk on the phone with a new client is that the parent feels somehow responsible for the sleep trouble they’re in. Either they were first time parents and didn’t know what they were...
We’ve Survived the Holidays… Now We Sleep
So, we’ve made it through the holidays in one piece. Phew! Sleep seems to be back on track in our house, given we had some late bedtimes and off-schedules surrounding Christmas. If you are still struggling with the holiday upheaval, make sure you review your post-holiday sleep recovery tips, and...
Holiday Giveaway Winners and a Sale!
I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season and those of you who celebrated Eid’ul-Adha, Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Lucia Day, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Boxing Day I hope you had a great holiday! And, I wish all of you a Happy New Year (any interesting resolutions...
Making Sure Baby Sleeps During the Holidays (Warning: Free stuff mentioned)
The holidays are tricky for your baby’s sleep. Grandma and grandpa want to spend time with the little fella, since they don’t get to see him that much. Or, you have two parties to go to on the same day, babysitters galore, or you have a lot of family members...
Is Your Baby Sleepy or Exhausted? [Videos Inside] – Sleep Quick Tip
How do you know if your baby is sleepy or exhausted? Some babies are easier to read than others and some babies get crankier than others without enough sleep. It highly depends on your baby’s temperament. So, what are the signs to look for? A baby is sleepy if she is: •...
CafeMom Daily Buzz: Big Kid
13 Year Old Accepts USC Football Scholarship
See this video at CafeMom. Um, is this kid even thinking about college yet? Since he's obviously an amazing quarterback, I guess 13 year old David Sills must appreciate the immensity of being offered a football scholarship to the University of Southern California, an awesome Division 1 school. Still, that's five years...
Noah Cyrus' Lingerie for Tweens a Big Hoax
Photo by Kristian Dowling/Getty I'm happy to report that Hannah Montana's little sister, Noah Cyrus, and her best bud are NOT designing a tween lingerie line as reported across the web recently. Oh, phew, I was really ready to give up all faith in humanity. According to the Daily Mail, Noah Cyrus,...
The Accident -- Life with 3 Teens
Photo by RAZmom88 It's hard enough raising one teen -- but three?! Welcome to RAZmom88's wild and wonderful life this week. A Dreaded Call It started like any other school morning. Wednesday. 5:45 a.m. I drove Andrea, 18, to school. I returned home and woke Zack, my 15 year old, who then showered...
Public School Bans "Dirty Dancing"
Photo by AdrinaBabyMama It's like a real-life version of Footloose at a public school in Wisconsin. The school has made headlines for banning "dirty dancing." Many parents and teachers have complained about the "grinding" type of dance, saying it simulates sex while students say banning it is infringing their constitutional rights. Read...
Forever 21's Cool Tween Clothing Line
Free Music T Shirt; $12 Forever 21's sister store, Heritage 1981, has launched a kids clothing store called HTG81 Kids. Think hip and stylish sunny California (brrr, wish I was there right now): graphic Ts, cargo shorts, floral tunics, acid wash, zebra print skirts, skater skinny jeans. And the price is right....
Shark Attacks 14 Year Old: Guess Who Wins?
See this video at CafeMom. This 14 year old New Zealand girl is my hero. She was boogie boarding in the ocean when a "massive gray thing" began swimming beside her. I would have had a heart attack and died right there. But this fast-thinking young woman took her boogie board...
Daddy Types
All The Characters In Rumplestiltskin, I Need To See You In The Hall
Not my thing, but I can respect and appreciate the fine work Paul Zelinsky did on his renaissance-style illustration of the story of Rumpelstiltskin. Some of those characters are so finely drawn, I expect they are relatives or neighbors......
More Words K2 Gets Amusingly Wrong
iPod = iPog smoke or steam, as comes out of the sidewalk or the middle of the street = Holy Smokes! The first is just mis-hearing, but holy smokes? That reminds me that she's not just making these up; she's......
Awesome Dollhouse, Much Else, Made By Joel
Joel is an at-home dad in Portland, where he just finished building this awesome modernist dollhouse for his son Jack. [His daughter's apparently more into bicycles at the moment.] Hardwood dollhouses are sweet. Holy smokes, he made all the......
That kid there is Erik Ross, I met him once with his mother Lillian, at a party I helped organize for Sofia Coppola. Nice folks. And of course, that's a Nanna Ditzel high chair, which looks pretty fantastic. Never......
Wow, just because they don't have labels doesn't mean you can knock them off. The Museum of London is selling a London-in-a-Bag play set which is a straightup ripoff of Muji's original -in-a-Bag series of toys, which were created--in......
'This Was A Harsh Reality For Mike, Who Had No Significant Human Relationships'
From the unbridled destruction of the landscape by proto-suburban sprawl, to the ever-looming threat of unemployment from technological obsolescence, to the desperate search for work--any work--that drives prices and wages to near zero--and literally leaves the working man trapped with......
TODAYshow.com: Parenting
Discuss: At what age should parents have 'the talk' with their kids?
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Discuss: What are secrets to family happiness?
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Discuss: Would you opt for an elective C-section
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Five tricks to teaching your child courteous communication
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Once opulent kids' birthdays being scaled back
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How stress cheats childhood and what you can do
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My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings
I swear that sometimes the banned ads are better than some of the actual ads that are shown. Go Daddy has made it a running joke in their ads about how hard it is to get one of their ads through. That being said, here are some ads what where...
Airmen from the Kentucky National Guard’s 123rd Contingency Response Group help to offload wounded Haitian refugees and medics from Puerto Rico National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters at the air hub Jan. 25, 2010, in Barahona, Dominican Republic. Photo Courtesy U.S Air Force Taken By Tech. Sgt. Dennis Flora These brave...
Health and Potty Training . . . Kinda
Thanks for all emails asking how Madison was. She’s actually doing fine now. I was right. Her keytones were pretty high and as soon as I got them in check, she was her normal annoying self. Something I will be asking the doctor when we got for her year old...
Some days it’s hard to be a mom
I’m not really complaining. Seriously, I’m not. My kids fell asleep in the chair in the living room last night at 6:30! They also slept all night too. Well, sort of all night. They both were up around 3, and we did some bed switching. Bill dealt with Will in...
Do you have life insurance? After we had kids, Bill and I knew how important it was to make sure our kids were taken care of if something should happen to us. However, life insurance does not have to be boring. TheLIFE Foundation is sponsoring the Crazy4Love Photo Contest. From now...
Priceless Parenting Blog
Interview about kids searching online for sex or porn
I met with Shaniqua Manning from NorthWest Cable News to discuss the recent study from Norton Family Online showing that the fourth most popular search term for children, even those 7 and under, is sex or porn. Click this picture to see the interview: ...
Preview New 2010 Priceless Parenting Training
We all want the best for our kids, and it is frustrating when kids don't cooperate and we are not having fun together. We should be having fun together. 2010 is a new year and it is time to add some new approaches to PricelessParenting.com training. I am thrilled about the...
Critical Comments Flow Freely from Parents
Do you make more positive comments or negative comments to your children? If you're like most parents, you make a lot more negative comments than positive ones. In her book, Building Moral Intelligence, Dr. Michele Borba writes "studies reveal that the average parent makes 18 critical comments to...
Kids Suspended for Bullying on Facebook
McClure Middle School in Seattle recently suspended 28 students for allegedly bullying a classmate through Facebook. Apparently a Facebook page was created that students could sign up for if they didn't like a certain student. When the problem was discovered, the page was taken down and the school began conversations...
Kids searching for sex and porn
Norton Family Online released the most searched for terms by children in 2009. Across all three age groups (7 and under, 8 - 12, 13 - 18) sex or porn was in the #4 spot for most search for terms. Yikes! They gathered this data from parents using...
Once children are tweens or teens, many parents ground their children as a generic consequence to misbehavior. The hope is that by requiring teens to stay at home and not be with friends, teens will learn to make better choices. However, teens are probably more likely to spend...
The Tranquil Parent
Travel, volunteer opportunities, and kids
The aftermath of the Haiti earthquake is on all of our minds this past couple of weeks. The earthquake exacerbated the already poor country's ills beyond our limited ability to comprehend! Jennifer wrote about their family response to the tragedy. What a great learning experience for children to participate...
Giving to Haiti: Making charitable giving real for young children
Like most of the rest of the world, we've been watching the news of the earthquake in Haiti and its aftermath with a mixture of sadness and concern and an urge to do something to help. I've been trying to think of ways to help the situation in Haiti...
ZRecs Family: Dealing with anxiety
I wrote about anxiety not too long ago in a post about stress and its effect on children. But I have been feeling the need to write more about anxiety. PBS just aired 6 hours worth of programming on how we function as human beings called This Emotional Life....
Irony and sincerity collide in my favorite new travel mug
DCI's I Am Not A Paper Cup sells on irony. It looks like a disposable coffee cup with a plastic lid, while in fact it's an insulated ceramic mug with a silicone lid. And it isn't without its faults. Someone may reach for it, prepared to throw it away for...
ZRecs Family: Good Enough Parenting
As we head into a new year, full of unexpected joys and challenges, I would like to suggest that we focus our thoughts on what it means to be “good enough parents.” I don't claim to have all the answers about parenting, or about relationships, but you will...
ZRecs Family: How our stress affects our kids, and how to lessen the impact - and relax!
With one holiday behind us and several more ahead, this might be a good time to talk about stress. This particular year may be an extremely stressful holiday for you and your family with the economy on the skids for more than a year. How do you handle stress...
The Committed Parent
I haven’t used an alarm clock in more than 30 years. I go to bed when I’m tired and get up when I awaken. I trust my body to tell me when it’s had enough rest, and I pride myself on “only” needing five or six hours most nights. Manly...
Why Our Children Can’t Be Trusted
Basically, it’s not them, it’s their brains. And for pretty much the same reasons, parents’ brains can’t be trusted, either. Or teacher’s brains. Or clergy’s brains. It’s why seasoned police veterans take eye-witness testimony with a grain of salt – the limitations of our senses make us and our children...
Neuro-Riffing on “The Science of Success”
Below I’ve excerpted portions from David Dobbs’ Atlantic magazine article, “The Science of Success” and reproduced them in green. Under each short excerpt I’ve added commentary of my own in blue, mostly looking through the lens of social neuroscience. Feel free to excerpt and add commentary of your own as...
Betrayed by Your Thieving Orchid Brain?
This week’s blog posting arrives in two parts. This first part is a magazine article that describes: ~ the difference between Dandelion Children and Orchid Children ~ why ADHD is really attentional agility and not a deficiency disorder at all ~ how parents, through no fault of their own, often unconsciously damage...
How America’s Bankers are Rotting Our Children’s Brains
Pardon this rant, but what the hell are the bankers thinking? Why does Goldman Sachs get to pay 1% tax on billions while I have to pay 35% on capital gains? Haven’t the banks ever watched It’s a Wonderful Life? Don’t they get just how depraved Mr. Potter’s ripoff karma...
What is the Sound of One Brain Crackling?
In 1993 I first encountered a book written by Alfred Tomatis, a French otolaryngologist – an ear, nose and throat doctor. While I’d never heard of him, in France he was known as “the Einstein of the ear.” His book, The Conscious Ear, essentially put forth a very compelling argument...
UnchartedParent.com
I’ve blogged a fair amount lately about conversations we need to have with our kids. We need to talk to them about how babies are made and when we think it’s okay to have sex. We need to warn them about drugs and equip them to make good choices when...
Repeat: How A Kid Says “I Love You”
Today’s post is a slightly edited, repeat offering for About.com’s February blog carnival on the topic of love. Read through it for a reminder of the diverse ways our kids tell us they love us. Then, starting tomorrow, you can click on the link above to find out what other...
I like to consider myself a fairly open-minded person. But some people and some situations are just so ridiculous that they deserve to be called out unequivocally and immediately. So let’s not waste any time in giving this week’s Unbelievable Ignoramuses Prize to the Menifee Union School District in southern...
“Don’t force it,” the little voice in my brain whispers. “Don’t push. You made a suggestion and it was rejected. Just shut up and walk away.” We each have a little voice in our heads that warns us to do what is smart instead of the thing we long to do. ...
Is anybody else out there parent to a cranky eight-year-old boy? You know what I mean: full of joy and enthusiasm at being parent to such a sweet, engaging child, you eagerly walk to the bus stop to greet your charming offspring the moment he comes off the bus. But...
A Child’s Prayer (“No More Hacking” Edition)
No matter how long I live, I will never understand either the buzz some people get from wrecking someone else’s work or the pleasure some information technology folks derive from withholding their specialized knowledge from those of us who can’t claim much in the way of skills in this area. ...
mummifiedtimesfive.net
A random thought on being a mother to an adult child
My oldest child, my only boy, will be 18 in just over a month. I have tried writing this post a number of times but each time I break down in tears while trying to express how much he has impacted my life. Everything I write just doesn’t seem to express...
You all know how I love my lists and charts…and you might remember when I blogged about Annabelle using her Little Billies routine chart. That works well for her so she knows what we’re going to do through the day. But we seem to be hearing a bit of quarrelling ...
Addicted to Lip Balm (+ giveaway!)
Keep reading to find out how you can win a $50 gift voucher to spend at Addicted to Lip Balm! The Lolly Shop for your lips! I LOVE the tag line of the Addicted to Lip Balm online store! With 5 females in the Mummified household, you can imagine how...
This post is linked to Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes For Mom. Technorati Tags: wordless wednesday...
Ever since I saw Jennifer Louden’s idea of keeping a comfort box in her book The Woman’s Comfort Book, I knew that this was something that I’d like to do for myself. So I plan to find a cute box and start thinking about what sort of things comfort me at...
Teaching your toddler the alphabet
Annabelle loves hearing me sing the alphabet song – over and over and over. She and I were driving into town the other week and she asked me to sing it. She joins in with the bits she knows. The drive into town is long enough for me to sing...
Meet the Hazards
I grew up in a clean house. A spotless house. Nothing was ever out of place. When crumbs hit the floor, they were vacuumed up immediately. Our beds were never left unmade before school. Even the basement, which was home to our toys and games, was picked up every night....
The Great Christmas Card Debate
When Lauren was born, my husband and I were ecstatic. After two-plus years of trying, we were blessed with a 9-lb. baby girl. So it is no wonder when Christmas rolled around, I wanted our holiday card to be memorable. Sure we could do the typical cute baby in a...
A Heartbreaking Work of… Oh, Never Mind
I was watching The Polar Express with Ted and the kids, and thinking how I could relate to the main character–a boy whose belief is restored in Santa Claus after he’s given a bell that only true believers can hear. He’s thrilled by this gift, but on the return trip...
Our kitchen usually looks just like this New Yorker cartoon, which reads, “And that’s how you make a peanut butter sandwich.” Enjoy and have a great holiday! We’ll be back with a new post soon. ...
Nothing Says Happy Holidays Like an Oversized Nightie
The holiday catalogs have arrived, and even though I can’t afford much this year, I still look. Most of them offer the expected—Pottery Barn’s picture perfect décor, LL.Bean’s cotton flannel shirts and Hanna Anderson’s red and green striped pajamas. Sure, these companies might mix it up with a few added...
Since I decided to leave the 9-5 and work from home part-time, my daily routine has become easier. I can spend more time with Lauren and Will in the morning without feeling rushed. I can visit my daughter’s nursery school and not worry about missing a meeting. And although I’m...
Moms & Dads: A Parenting Blog | Sun-Sentinel Blogs
From baby to teen: Is each stage better than the last?
I can still feel my tiny sleeping newborn snuggling on my chest, his breath in rhythm with my own. There is really nothing better than that pure and blissful moment. Until you walk in the door from a long day, and his little arms fly up in the...
Getting all the angles: How to help your child with geometry
Maggie Cary, a national board certified teacher has been an educator for more than 17 years. She is certified in secondary education and holds a master’s degree in early childhood education. Over the years she has mentored countless teachers and advised hundreds of parents. Cary has taught children from preschool through...
Autism and vaccines: What parents should do
Dr. Noel Alonso is a practicing pediatrician in South Florida. He writes a question-and-answer column for SunSentinel.com. We asked him to weigh in on the retraction of a 12-year-old study that linked vaccines to autism. On Tuesday, the British medical journal The Lancet retracted its 1998 study which had proposed a...
Middle school PE: Florida is doing the right thing
When I think about the hours my kids spend texting, doing homework and playing games on the computer, I am thankful for the new middle school physical education requirement. I'm responding to my colleague Gretchen Day-Bryant's post yesterday about what she sees as the uselessness of this requirement. At our middle...
PE class isn't the answer for many kids
My colleagues at the Orlando Sentinel have an interesting story about how tens of thousands of Florida middle schoolers are opting out of the state's PE requirement. Of course, the subtext is that this is a tragedy. I say, that's as it should be. I have a particular bias against...
Should we let our kids set the rules?
I’ll be the first to admit that I had some reservations about the concept at first. But in a free parenting class I took recently, they suggested that parents should have their children help with setting the rules of the house. I took it a step further and had my...
Charm City Moms
13-year-old quarterback commits to USC
Guest Dad Joe Burris is thinking about 13-year-old quarterback David Sills, who has given a verbal commitment to play football for the University of Southern California -- while still in middle school: The latest news dominating sports circles involves......
What will we have to do with the kids this snowmaggedon weekend but watch movies? I asked Baltimore Sun critic Michael Sragow for his favorite picks for family movies that could be watched at home. Here they are, in a......
So snow may ruin everything. So we're not in the Super Bowl. This is still going to be a fun weekend. Isn't it? Your best luck with this list of events may be on Thursday and Friday, before the......
The site where kids make dinner
For today's Dinner Together, I decided to use a new web site I'd heard about -- and let the kids choose their own dinners. Virtually. The new site Zisboombah lets kids choose from a pretty broad menu of categorized......
Groundhog day: Phil sees more winter
Boo. My kids, my husband and I had a great time watching Punxsutawney Phil's annual weather report live this morning from Pennsylvania. We weren't as thrilled with his prediction of six more weeks of winter. In a drawing he made......
Liz Atwood has her own take on Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign this Tween Tuesday: While I haven’t seen Sasha and Malia in a while, I was surprised when Michelle Obama said last week that her daughters’ pediatrician had advised her......
Attachment Parenting Blog: Raising Children with Love
I hosted a panel last night on the future of television, for the DaVinci Institute, and as part of it, I continued an amusing tradition of presenting the weirdest pictures of the week and offered up what I hope were amusing captions for them unrelated to the original context of...
Research: Why your match.com email doesn't lead to dates
I know I'm a research geek with lots of academic background and even a stint as a research scientist at an R&D lab, but still, this kind of data really fascinates me to no end: Online dating site OK Cupid has released the result of some semantic analysis that it...
The Story Behind Cirque du Soleil's The Beatles LOVE
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I write about all sorts of stuff, not just parenting (though as a single dad with three kids parenting is pretty much always on my mind!), including some of the shows that I have a chance to see as...
Finding your sex appeal after divorce
This amusing piece was sent to me by the gal who wrote the book The Laptop Dancer Diaries and I thought I'd share it, even though it's a bit, um, explicit. It's written from a woman's perspective, but with a few tweaks I think it addresses universal issues of self-image...
Should your ex show up at events when it's your time?
Since I post questions for other people with some anonymity involved, I am finding that more questions are showing up in my mailbox, asking me for advice. I'm happy to help, but I do have to be candid that I'm hardly an expert parent nor am I any sort of...
Honey, it's our fetus on the phone again!
I am just so entertained by this phenomenally wacky hardware add-on to our handy Apple iPhones: the Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System, which, according to its makers, "was created to provide a convenient, comfortable and safe way for families to share the sensory and emotional experience of bonding through sound...
Parenting Course | Parent Classes | My Mommy Manual
Our Yogi Parenting audio tips are presented every Friday by Michaela Turner, BS Ed, CYKT, YKT, Co-Founder Yogi Parenting Listen to this :15 AUDIO TIP: — Michaela is a 30 year veteran educator and a Certified YogaKids Teacher and Trainer. She teaches yoga baby and yoga kids classes for children throughout St. Louis,...
How To Prepare for the Emotional Aspects of Birth
During pregnancy, a great deal of energy is exerted in preparation for the physical arrival of a new baby. Between multiple prenatal appointments, purchasing baby supplies, and taking childbirth classes, there is a limitless list of things to do before the birth. However, amongst all the physical preparations, there is...
How to get your son excited about cooking (and eating) healthy
Did you know that children who learn to eat healthy early in life are more likely to continue good eating habits as they get older? I’ve had friends who didn’t bother to try and feed their child anything beyond standard kid-fare because to them it was a losing battle they didn’t...
How to organize your families winter coats and boots
I have to admit a while back, I didn’t think we would have snow by the Holidays. Two weeks before Christmas I was still going out with just a light coat and shoes that are not snow friendly. Today is a different story, not just with me but also with...
Welcome our sweet babies, Hadley and Colin Tucker, born Monday, February 1 at 9:58 and 10:02am weighing 6# 7oz and 6# 4oz. We feel SO blessed and are thankful for all your thoughts and prayers all these months! Photos will follow I promise…. With love, Shawn, Suzanne, Reilly and Morgan Related Articles: 37 Weeks : Crystal...
How to Hire Help with Your Newborn
...watch this quick and informative interview with Mommy Expert Debbie Hipp on everything you need to know before hiring a sitter, Nanny or Doula to help you out at home....
Oooh Baby Green Living and Parenting Ideas
After a round with baby rash, I did a little research on the best green baby wipes. I've had concerns about the cheap store-bought brands for a long time. With my baby's sensitive skin, allergies and eczema I'm very particular about all products she comes in contact with...
When I started this blog I wanted to focus on sharing green parenting tips. My goal was to turn the lot of you into eco-friendly parents in 10 Easy Steps or less. As so many of you know, it’s easy to run to the end of the thread of your...
Parenting Independent Children
I can tell you from experience that parenting independent children is more of a challenge than raising people pleasers. I have a few of each so I know of what I speak. After studying nature versus nurture in school, I thought I had it all figured out until I...
Battling illness in my house follows a pattern, a step forward and two back or maybe it's three but who's counting, right? I haven't posted much on MRSA wound healing or our battle with staph lately. It's like I've been avoiding the pink elephant in the room that...
The best Christmas present ever is causing me problems! Researching green house cleaners (actually house cleaning services not the products) has now been added to my VERY long "to do" list. I'm ashamed to say that I knuckled and bumped it to the top. I did so out...
Where to Donate Used Stuffed Animals
I'm on a house cleaning mission and wondering where to donate used stuffed animals? After what will be forever remembered as the Christmas asthma attack of 2009, I've dedicated every free moment to ferreting out every possible irritant and allergy trigger in the house including all but the kids' most...