This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Food Lion. All opinions are 100% mine. Do you ever feel like dinner just kind of sneaks up on you? The kids start saying “I’m so hungry.” and you look at the clock only to discover that it’s dinnertime… that’s me, anyway. ...
The shocking truth that your tweens & teens aren’t telling you
There is a shocking truth that your tweens & teens aren't telling you. Today, my brother is here to tell the story. My brother, Doctor Timothy Hoffman, is the principal of a wonderful high-school in our area. His wife, Jill, is also a teacher at the middle-school. They have been around ...
The Truth About Antibiotics
This is a post prepared under a contract funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and written on behalf of the Mom It Forward Influencer Network for use in CDC’s Be Antibiotics Aware educational effort. Opinions on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views ...
A Just Because gift
Thanks to ZURU for sponsoring today's post A Just-Because Gift. When I was younger, some days I would come home from school or from a friend's house to find a surprise gift on my dresser from my mom. Sometimes it was socks, sometimes a new shirt, sometimes a candle (I love candles). No matter ...
Are you too busy?
Are you too busy & too stressed? You aren't alone. Last year, I had read another article titled The Disease of Being Busy by Omid Safi. I came across that article again this week and it spoke to me. To quote from this article: "I saw a dear friend a few days ago. I stopped by to ask ...
10 life lessons I want our children to learn
Every day, we get the opportunity to shape our kids, to literally change their lives. Everything that we say to them sticks with them, our words become their inner voices, our expectations become their goals. If I had to pick just 10 life lessons I want our children to learn… I would use these ...
Drowning doesn’t look like drowning
Today I am working with Nationwide on a sponsored post about their Make Safe Happen campaign to talk about water safety, which is such an important issue. My dad once told me a story about when he was little. He was at the community swimming pool with his parents. His parents were sitting by ...
Cleaning impacts how we feel
Thanks to Clorox® for teaming up with me to share this sponsored post about how cleaning impacts the way that we feel. I was listening to a re-run of The Oprah Show on the radio the other day and she was interviewing a husband and wife with 5 children. They were talking about how they were ...
Sports Bag Essentials
This is a sponsored post from Healthy Essentials Cheering from the Sidelines: Sports Bag Essentials Baseball and tennis and lacrosse, oh my! Springtime is finally here, which means sunny days, playing outside and sports… lots and lot of sports. Here are 5 sports bag essentials that I keep ...
25 Reasons the tooth fairy forgot to come
When the kids wake us up to tell us that the tooth fairy forgot to come last night – we need to be quick on our feet to think of a reason why. Our tooth fairy usually comes and leaves a cute little note that smells like perfume and has fancy handwriting, but sometimes she just forgets! I guess we ...
Why our children do school work over summer break
I wanted to talk about Why our children do school work over summer break. A while back, I wrote a post where I shared my NO SCREENTIME UNTIL printable. It had rules about what the kids need to do BEFORE they are allowed to use electronics. It was received by many as helpful and many as ...
20 ways to work from home (when you don’t want to work outside of the house)
Lately I have been talking to a lot of moms that have been asking me about working from home. I love it, because I can be at our kids' schools when I want to go and I can be here when I need to. I can work late at night after the kids are in bed and be a full-time mom during the day. To help ...
Say Yes to the vacation.
Always say yes to the vacation. Time goes by too quickly and things come & go. Time together can't be found once it's gone. Days, weeks, months... when they are gone, they are gone and we can't get them back. Say yes to the vacation, to the chance to bond and create memories. I read a ...
Daily, weekly, monthly cleaning list
With four children, I have given up on having a home that looks pristine. If I'm being completely honest, I don't want it to look pristine. I want it to look like a home that our family loves to be in, to hang out in, to play in. I love to look at spotless homes in magazines, but even more, I ...
Snacks that keep you full
Thanks to Metamucil, our sponsor today, for helping us on our daily journey towards healthy living. My kids LOVE to swim. In the summer months, we spend a lot of time at the pool, lake, and ocean, so it’s no surprise that they love the water. One thing I’ve learned from our endless hours ...
DIY Fingerprint tie for Father’s Day
I was looking at some of my old Father's Day crafts on the blog & came across this one that our youngest son made when he was in preschool. It was so sweet, so I wanted to share it again today. It is a two-sided DIY fingerprint tie craft for Father's Day - and Dad can wear it! ;) MATERIALS ...
Summer Cleaning Hacks for Families
Messes don't take a break, especially as spring turns into summer and pollen is everywhere. However, we don't want to spend all of our time cleaning. The key is to keep the house (inside and out) tidy as we go and then it is easy to clean the house to set the stage for an amazing summer party. ...
What I want our sons to know before they are teenagers
Sponsored post by Mirum. All opinions are my own. "I'm coming..." I yell to our daughter, the youngest of our four children. She is waiting for me on the swings in our backyard. I push open the screen door on the back porch and take a step out. I look down, as I am searching for my ...
10 Damaging Parenting Habits
I am working with the Monique Burr Foundation for Children on a sponsored post to spread awareness. We all want our children to be kind, confident, cooperative and assertive. It can be hard to teach our children to handle so many different behaviors. We miss providing learning opportunities ...
Non-Toy Rewards
I try to find rewards that are not toys when I want to show our children that I’m proud of them. Just like science proves that giving our kids an experience is better than a toy, recent studies show that giving toys as rewards may backfire. In complete transparency, I don't always succeed at ...