Parenting Wisdom

All three of my kids lived on breastmilk for the first year of their lives.  I feel fortunate that my twins were born at 37 weeks, but they were not good at latching.  I exclusively pumped and bottle fed them, and had to work very hard to produce enough milk.  I tried every trick in the book, but pumping consistently was the only sure way to increase my supply.  My youngest was great at breast feeding so I breastfed and pumped for the first year.  I had no trouble producing enough for one baby since my body had been “trained” to produce enough for two.

Giving Tuesday is the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving – which falls on November 28th this year.   #GivingTuesday is a global day of giving, started in 2012, that has continued to grow thanks to the power of social media.  It kicks off the giving season after the two busiest shopping days of the year - Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping, and I love the online deals of Cyber Monday even more.  But Giving Tuesday is a fantastic reminder about what the holiday season is all about: Giving.    

Honestly, do any parents feel balanced more than 10% of the time?

This is a quick list of all the ways I have failed just in the last week or so!  I would be writing a book if I wanted to think about all the ways in the past year or more!  Maybe you said, "Yep, me too!" for some of these! So stop being so hard on yourself. 

My niece is pregnant with her first baby at the same time as I am pregnant with my fourth. How fun is that?! This is my third pregnancy, and I still feel completely surprised sometimes at the things that...

We want our gatherings to be picture perfect, but then reality steps in and slaps us with terrible weather, bad roads, sick kids or cranky parents. Or all of the above.

If you ask my husband, he’d say I am a control freak. Personally, I don’t like the negative connotations of that phrase (even though many of us nod our heads, raise our eyebrows and let out an insightful, “ahhh”...

For the last couple of years, my family has spent a lot of time focusing on mental health/mental wellness.  As we are getting ready to send our kids back to school from a wonderful summer break, I wanted to...

The neighborhood that my family is fortunate enough to live in could be mistaken for one from a scene of Pleasantville. The children run and play safely in the street and all of the backyards meet in a way that one cannot be differentiated from another. Our 2 year old is among the youngest on our quaint block, and still the older children include him without question or prejudice.

While this is not my own original idea, I wanted to share it because I think you should try it too - cooking “hard boiled” eggs in the oven instead of actually boiling them.