Category Archives: Parenting

26 Unique Letter of the Week Ideas For Your Preschooler 30Days, 500 Words #4: Kicking Show And Tell's A-Z Since 2018

Welcome to day 4 of my writing challenge! Today’s post is brought to you by the Letter of the Week. It’s S, for Sunday… night. 😐

Sigh.

Continue reading

Reluctant Rookies to Mouse Masters: The Definitive Disney Ten: 6-10 Vacation Destination Review #4 part 2

Today’s post is part 2 of highlights from my family’s 8-day maximum-experience Disney vacation. I can’t believe we’ve been home almost a month already!

Seriously, Jim. 

In front of Cinderella’s castle at the Magic Kingdom. That’s not a fake smile!

Continue reading

Epcot family photo

Reluctant Rookies to Mouse Masters: The Definitive Disney Ten: 1-5 Vacation Destination Review #4 part 1

Today’s is part 1 of a 2-part post covering highlights from my family’s 8-day maximum-experience Disney vacation. And what a long, strange, WONDERFUL trip it was!

I thought I would be ‘Already Gone’ by the first day of this trip. But instead, for eight straight days, I had TONS of fun! 

For “The Definitive Disney 10,” I will be covering 10 talking points from the 8-day Disney vacation my family took last August 20-27, in 2 separate posts. My overall goal? I don’t know, actually. Amusement? Sure. To inform? Perhaps!

Continue reading

Our Magic Bands, ready for action!

Packing Without Tears: Preschooler and Pre-Teen Edition No Sanity Left Behind!

Disney Vacation Packing/Tying Up Loose Ends Day: Complete!!

Embed from Getty Images

Our Disney Vacation started today. How exciting!

Except for the dreaded day-before packing preparation. That’s usually the roughest part of the trip, right?

Suitcases

One suitcase small enough to avoid checks, plus one carry-on bag. L-R: S4, me, S12. Mike hadn’t packed at this point yet, but he will use one duffel carry-on bag and whatever room is left in our big suitcase that contains all the evil “liquids” not allowed on the plane. I prepaid $25 to check that bag today via Jetblue.com. I also printed all of our boarding passes already! You can do so up to 24 hours in advance with Jetblue.

Wrong! At 11 pm last night, I was sitting in bed, done with all my travel tasks, already relaxing and writing. This was on the day before we left for an 8-day vacation some 1,000 miles from home, with my entire nuclear family in tow. I must have been in quite a good place, preparation-wise, amirite?

I want to shout it from the rooftops. YES!

Continue reading

Summer in Review #1: Dual Birthday Party Day Success! A Trifecta of Summer Highlights: Part 1 of 3

Oh Summer, How I Will Miss Thee…

This week, the lazy days of my treasured summer vacation came to a close. The first ‘official’ day of school looms ahead next Wednesday for S11, and …for me.

Boo! Hissss…

BUT…

Soon enough, the math teaching madness begins. Numbers!! Holla!!
LadyBB / Pixabay

On the bright side, I’ve had an absolutely amazing summer! And though I’m sad to see it end, all good things… seem to do that. Such is life, amirite?

So today, on this pre-Labor Day Friday, the official last Friday of summer break here in NY (for 3 out of 4 of us here, anyway), I have decided to post an extended recap of my top three favorite summer moments for your reading pleasure. To avoid a ridiculously long, rambling post, however, said recap will consist of three separate posts, starting with this one. Continue reading

MIR: The Good, The WTF, and The Alt-Good. Welcome to Life, 2017-Style. It's Been A While.....Time to Catch Up.

It’s been some time since I’ve blogged. Over a month, actually. Why? You could say that life has gotten in my way. Or, more specifically, work.

So. Much. Work.

Report card time can be stressful when you service, IDK, about 60ish students, I am learning. Also, dedicating a week-plus to writing up a detailed report on every kid’s progress to the detriment of sleep, family time, and at times, my sanity, has, plainly, sucked. Plus, after finishing all 60 reports, I then had to enter another round of student observational data, or risk falling behind on that. Because you know, after writing 60 reports, writing 47 more narratives is exactly the kind of wind-down activity I long for.

Yeah. It’s been a rough life, these last few weeks. Continue reading

Christmukkah 2016: Last-Minute Holiday Gift Ideas, Toddler/Tween Edition Making our older baby and baby adolescent smile since Holiday 2006!

 

Christmukkah cheer.

Another holiday season is upon us! When you celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah like we do in my home, there is double the pressure to find the best gifts for the (lack of) money we have. Quadruple, if you multiply two holidays by two kids. And this year, both holidays fall at the exact same time. This phenomenon has definite pros, but also significant cons.

Pros: I have a bit more time to bargain hunt than when Hanukkah falls at the start of the month. That year when Hanukkah merged with Thanksgiving? Yeah, that was stressful.

Cons: That’s, like, a ton of stuff to seek out, purchase, and wrap by a certain date and time. Oh, and Mike and I are hosting Christmas dinner this year too, because apparently, we enjoy chaos. Pile it on, yo!

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a01QQZyl-_I[/embedyt]
OK, it’s not at the level of pressure described in this song, but holiday time is still filled with pressure when you are a parent. Plus, its a Freddie Mercury-David Bowie duet, for Pete’s sake. That’s reason enough to throw this video into a post. Continue reading

WIR November 8-November 15: Post-Election Suckage Not A Political Post. Well, not completely. Kinda not.

Twas a horrendous week last week, beginning with a traffic-filled, chock-full-o-illness, fear-inducing Election Day last Tuesday, and ending with gray skies and torrential rainfall this past Tuesday. In short, last Tuesday-Tuesday sucked.

Yes, Axl. I do need some time on my own.

Election Day-last Tuesday pretty much consisted of one crappy incident after another. In fact, plucking 3 highlights out of last Tuesday-Tuesday is going to be a definite challenge, because as of right now, I got nothin.’ Lowlights, however, I got plenty! Sigh. Here is to a better week this week. I gotta believe that.

This small town girl will NOT stop believin,’ Steve Perry.

Though I usually start with 3 highlights, I am at a loss for any possibilities in that area at the current moment. Therefore, I’m going with the yucky stuff first. Continue reading

Happy Transferiversary to the Little Embryo that Could (Survive My Killer Uterus, That Is)

One Little, Two Little Embryos

You know its fiction when a petri dish of embryos is just laying on a table, left alone in a room with a person who isn’t a doctor. Still, I love that Friends took on the surrogacy and infertility topic, and later on the adoption and infertility topic as well!

My life completely changed for the better three years ago yesterday. I will always consider October 24, 2013, to be one of the happiest days of my life, though I didn’t know it 100% at the time. At the moment, 10/24/13 was certainly a day filled with hope. It was also a day where I felt strangely confident, even after 5 straight years of failures. Part of me just knew on that particular day that a long struggle was finally ending, and a joyful journey we had been waiting so long for was about to begin. Continue reading

My Daughters Have A Big Age Gap, And I Love It I'm Guest Blogging on Be Your Best Mom This Week!

Big age gap siblings S2 and S10, 8 Years Apart

S2 and S10 have a big age gap being 8 years apart.

This week, I am thrilled to be guest blogging for the great Milena Barett at Be Your Best Mom Dot Com! My guest post is about loving the big age gap between my two daughters, S10 and S12. This age gap wasn’t planned, but I ended up loving it anyway. Eight is great, indeed! Follow the link below, and I hope you enjoy the read: Continue reading