Tootsie Roll Pops Re-visited

I recently re-visited an age-old question with my kids–How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? Even though the 1970s commercial evidently still runs today, we watch so little commercial television, the kids had never seen it. Because I’m a nerd and a homeschooling mama, we answered it […]

Me Time

When my first two were little, I was part of a moms group that spent a year going through a curriculum that drove home the point that moms needs to protect who they are—their identity before kids.  There are lots of ways to do that but one that I have been really good about is […]

Life Well-Lived: Organizational Resources

What are your favorite resources (Products, Apps, Books, Websites, etc.) to help you get organized? Get yourself a calendar and use it.  I’ve fully embraced the digital age but I used to carry a student-planner-sized calendar that was my spiral-bound brain.  I’m visual so I used lots of colored pens to categorize goings-ons.  I’m a […]

Life Well-Lived: Spring Cleaning

What are your favorite spring cleaning tips? Do you have any to add to Alicia’s 10-minutes-or-less list? I have to laugh that I was assigned this particular part of the Getting Organized campaign.  My first thought was, “Spring Cleaning?!?!  What’s that?  Do people still do that?” Here’s my two-cents: Do a daily 10-minute declutter (read: […]

Live Well Lived: Tips for hosting a stress-free gathering

We love having people at our house.  I hate cleaning.  I know, bad combination.  Over the years, we’ve figured out how to make it work for us. Lower your standards.  I know…much easier said than done.  But let’s be honest.  When was the last time you stepped into a friend’s house and judge her for […]

Live Well Lived: Getting Happy

I was recently asked, “How do you plan to create happiness for yourself in 2012?” There are, of course, the cliche answers such as take time for myself, live in the moment, get my priorities straight, exercise more, tell corny jokes…you get the idea.  But since I hate cliche answers, I kept thinking.  Then there […]

Random facts scavanger hunt

I never really feel like I know someone until I know a random, deep, dark (or just plain embarrassing) fact about her.  Well here’s your chance to find out that random trivia about 50 or so BlogHer bloggers and have a chance to win $100 in Visa gift card money.  Click here to play. Did […]

What's New?

You’ll notice some BlogHer advertising hanging around the blog now.  Although I’m not a huge fan of such banners and ads, we saw it as an opportunity to raise money for Grafted Families.  So a couple carefully selected ads seemed a small sacrifice to be able to promote God’s heart for orphans.  On that note, […]