I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (#7) for the second time, and I am amazed all over again at the brilliance of J.K. Rowling. The story is a masterpiece. Reading it through the second time was much different than the first – the first time I read so fast and didn’t catch [...]
A few weeks ago we purchased our first child safety product: a baby gate. That’s kind of a big deal! We knew it was time when baby was halfway up the stairs after only 5 seconds of being unsupervised. We used to block the top of the stairs with the playpen, but that was a [...]
In my house as a kid we had what we called “Blue Jobs” – things like filling the wood box, changing the oil in the cars, etc. “Pink Jobs” existed too, but those are trickier. Maybe picking the fat off the meat – men seem to be squeamish about those sorts of things, at least [...]
We have a family get together each month to celebrate any birthdays in that month. We usually eat lunch or dinner together and then have some sort of activity. My husband and I were in charge of the March party, and we decided we wanted to talk about how we met our spouses, etc. My [...]
I picked up A Conspiracy of Paper, by David Liss because it’s my book club’s selection for this month, and I can’t wait to discuss it tomorrow night with my fellow book clubbers (this month’s meeting will be my first)! A financial mystery set in early 1700 England tells the story of Benjamin Weaver, a [...]
My linen closet has been in serious need of attention. I love organizing, so figuring out a solution for the piles of sheets was a joyful challenge. This is what I came up with: I love it! Rolling sheets and towels actually takes up less space, and it also looks neater than piling up different [...]
I am a youth leader in my church for young women ages 14 and 15. Last Saturday we went to a conference called “Best of Especially for Youth” to listen to three youth motivational speakers. The first speaker talked about learning to be yourself, which is a challenge among people of all ages, not just [...]
Recently I remodeled a cardboard food container into a pencil holder – an easy and fun project for all ages and spaces. I noticed that my night stand was constantly cluttered with pens/pencils, scraps of paper, etc and I wanted to organize that in a way that would fit the color scheme and theme of [...]
In order for hand washing to do any good, you have to wash them for more than 5 seconds. A fun idea is to teach kids to wash their hands to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Sing that song in your head, and when you’re done you know your hands have been sufficiently sanitized. Teaching kids [...]
This book is a great resource for everything that concerns the home. She goes through every room in the house and talks about different choices for textiles/floor surfaces/etc., how to clean EVERYTHING, and sooo much more. One of my favorite parts was a little section with instructions for folding a fitted sheet. Fitted sheets are [...]