How was your Xmas? We decided to vacation in Florida for the holiday break, for some sun & warmth. For the first two days, my husband was still on a biz trip a short flight away. So it was just me and the kids. I gave kids assignment when we arrived at the airport, to take care of a backpack and the carseat, respectively. They were excited about the trip and happy to get assignments and did well. On the plane, I told them it's just me and them on the trip down, so I expect them to behave themselves. "You get what you get and you don't get upset." A very useful line I copied back from thei ..read more

Happy holidays everyone! My husband is traveling for work this week, so a bit quieter with just me and the kids. As you may know I've been working on emotional management with my 10 year old son. Yeah, he still cries when he doesn't get what he wants, especially during dinner time, when he's probably tired from holding it together all day, or maybe it's the hangry time of the day. His doctor told us during our appointment last week, that if he has tantrums at home and not at school, we need to look at how we're dealing with him. That there's probably a reward for him to continue such behavior ..read more

This Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending first our school's winter concert, and then Stories of Self at PAUS. The kids had a wonderful concert. I even got to see my son playing the recorder that they've learned for the last 6 weeks. I took way too many pics and vids as you can see. Just be warned about the cute overload with the kindergarteners at the end. ;-) But what really blew me was the visit to PAUS our upper school. These kids are amazing, and so very resilient! The 6th grade assignment was to write about a hardship they went through, and how that affected them. I heard about one ..read more

Here's what you told me last time. Yeah, motherhood isn't easy. Personally, I'm surprised about the 9%! ;-) Yesterday was my son's 10th birthday. We celebrated it with a party a couple of weeks before. He got gifts from family and friends and had a great time. So by the time it was his real birthday, it was more chill. A friend was visiting so we booked dinner with him. I told my kids about the plan, but apparently my son didn't hear it (probably too busy reading a book.) We picked up my son that evening and started driving to the dinner reservation. "Wait, we're not going to my favorite res ..read more

How was your Thanksgiving? We had a very nice time with the inlaws, complete with our annual tradition of a fried turkey. :) Kudos to my husband and my father-in-law for braving the extra cold weather to fry the bird outdoors. The kids and their cousins played, while us adults planned a family get-together in January, and everyone ate a bit too much. :) We then went skiing at Wachusetts. It was in the 20s, with lots of snowmaking, and nobody on the trails. Our kids had a blast, especially my daughter, who after falling a few of times (with me, without me, making me fall only) finally mastered ..read more

Howdy, Those of you who know me know that cleanliness is not one of my virtues. ;-) Recently though, even I'm starting to get embarrassed at the state of our house. It's just hard with kids and work. :( Even my husband started asking me, "Uh, what is this, and that?" Well, that's the piles of books and toys my daughter left around, the clothes I'm trying to give away to Goodwill, vs. the clothes I want to return, vs. the toys I want to give to my friend's child, and well, a few mystery bags that I have no idea. :-D I tried to do some research on decluttering, and watched with kids video on M ..read more

Hope you had a good Veterans Day Weekend, whether or not you had the day off. We were driving back from visiting our good friends in New Jersey, and passing through New York. I asked my husband if he wanted me to drive. "No way, not after what happened the last time you drove in New York." Indeed, I'm not a great driver, while my husband loves to drive, so he does bulk of the driving at our house. On top of that, I have the worst memory. So he had to remind me of our big adventure in New York last time. It was a cold and dreary Sunday in February. I was driving the family down the FDR Drive i ..read more

Howdy, Sounds like many of you decided to bring your kids to voting, like us. :) We went as a family after picking up the kids from school. My son asked me how I wanted to vote, and colored in the circles for me. He had heard about Ballot Question 1 and told me to vote No, because he heard that it's "bad for patients." He was disappointed that I didn't vote No. I tried to explain to him that you may see commercials by different advocacy groups, but the truth might be more complicated. I read there are nurses for it and nurses against it, and it was confusing enough that I decided to leave th ..read more

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! We went trick-or-treat with both my son and my daughter's friends just in our neighborhood. Yep that's my kid refusing to wear a costume, while his classmates had fun with theirs. I think one year my son wore an itchy dinosaur costume that might have traumatized him. ;-) Speaking of dinosaurs... I have to give it to this parent right here. What sacrifice! ;-) It's always nice to see some families working hard to make it fun for the kids. :) It was really nice for a friend to invite a few families over for some pizza and food. We were rested, fed, and re ..read more

Last week, I asked about arguing with the spouse. Interestingly enough, while it was one of the more popular newsletters, the poll turned out to be the least popular with only a handful people filling it out. Half said they don't argue much, and gave great advice. Still I wonder if there might be a silent majority out there. ;-) I really appreciate the great tips folks gave. Thought I'll take the time to share, and have made all the comments anonymous. I appreciated this one about being oldest or youngest child -- I can definitely relate to that bossiness of the oldest. ;-) "My husband come ..read more