I grew up in small town Northern Michigan. A cozy little town with absolutely nothing to do. I remember the first time I came to Grand Rapids. It was my senior year of high school and I was coming down to do a college visit.

I remember being in awe of it’s beauty and intimidated at it’s size (remember, small town girl). It wasn’t until I actually started college that I began to appreciate all that Grand Rapids had to offer and that appreciation continued to grow as I explored the city as a single woman and then with my husband. Now that appreciation only continues as we explore Grand Rapids as a family! Read the rest of this entry…

As sad as I am to see Summer end, let’s just face it…Fall is AWESOME!

Cooler weather. Trees decorated in amazing reds, oranges, and yellows. Apple crisp. And Halloween! Oh yes, Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, coming in second to Christmas. I have a lot of good childhood memories around Halloween. Maybe that’s why I’m so fond of it. Read the rest of this entry…

It’s no secret, I’m not a fan of meal time. I like to eat the meals, I just don’t like to prepare them. To my defense, it doesn’t help that my family is not the most adventurous eaters (some would say “picky”). That’s nice, to a point, but then it just gets boring.

So, I’m on the mission to discover or create some new, basic, simple meals that I know my family will enjoy. Or learn to enjoy! Of course, as I discover them, I’ll share them with you! Read the rest of this entry…

After the first months of really sucking in the sleep department of life (as in he did not like to sleep, ever), Talon is turning out to be my best sleeper yet!

Abbi was a good sleeper from the get-go, but pretty much had to be rocked to sleep. Putting her to bed while she was still awake didn’t go over too well. Zoe, she was not a good sleeper. I think she just didn’t need as much sleep as Abbi ever did. Which was frustrating to me because I needed the rest. We battled a lot. Funny thing, she still does not need nearly as much sleep as Abbi does!  Read the rest of this entry…

We still have two weeks before school starts around here. (I can’t believe it’s only two weeks away!) However, this week, we got a little does of what it will be like with Abbi in Kindergarten.

She is took part in KinderCamp, a ‘get you ready for Kindergarten‘ day camp put on by the Outdoor Discover Center. For a few hours each morning (Monday thru Wednesday) she got to learn about different creatures in the world around her while getting a taste of what it’s like to be in her classroom and at the school. Really great idea! Yay for an awesome school! And she even got to meet her teacher! Super yay! Read the rest of this entry…

I knew that once the little man figured out how to make his arms/hands and legs/feet work together, there would be no stopping him. And, for the past few weeks, that’s exactly what has happened.

He’s figured out how to get up on all fours and rock back and forth, launching himself forward at times. But mostly he’s masters the military crawl.  I’m sure soon he’ll realize that if he keeps his belly off the ground that he’ll be able to move a lot faster and will less effort. But I’m not going to tell him that. And neither will you! Seriously. Zip it!  Read the rest of this entry…

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know you can pretty much set your clock to my tweets. At right around 5pm, almost daily, I’m sending some sort of update about not know what in the world to make for dinner! It can be so frustrating because, well, dinner happens every day. It shouldn’t be a surprise to me. Dinner time comes and my family is going to be hungry. And yet, there I will be, standing in the kitchen, dumfounded as to what to make and realizing that it’s a tad too late to be defrosting something from the freezer.

The even worse part…lunch isn’t much better! Yes, my girls are completely content eating PB&J or grilled cheese sandwiches. But I’m usually left, standing in front of the cupboard or fridge, wondering what on earth I’m going to eat. As you can probably guess, this does not result in the best choices for lunch or dinner time meals! Read the rest of this entry…

Being a mom who runs her business from home (hint: my business is writing and consulting), I’m constantly looking for ways to streamline the business side of life in an effort to balance work and family. Like most novice jugglers, I don’t always do such a great job keeping everything running smoothly and a ball will drop here or there.  But it’s a constant learning process.  And here are the tools I’ve learned to use along the way: Read the rest of this entry…

Out of all of the possible Summer activities, I am sure that my daughters’ absolute favorite is playing at the park! Swings. Slides. Merry-go-rounds. Sand! Hours and hours they could spend there. And totally would if I’d let them!

Heading out to the park is a great way to wind down the Summer but still get out and enjoy the sunny weather. We will even venture out to the park as the leaves begin to fall from the trees because, after all, you can still swing and slide in sweatshirts, jeans, and even hats & mittens! Read the rest of this entry…

Despite the fact that I grew up on the water {Lake Huron}, I’ve never been on a sail boat. I’ve been on pretty much every other kind of boat, from little fishing boats to giant barges, but never a sail boat. So, of course, that one had to go on my Life List.

But not just be on a sailboat. I wanted to learn all about that boat!

Then it only made sense that, after finding out that one of my husband’s co-workers had a sailboat, I should mention it to my husband two or three {dozen} times that I REALLY WANTED to learn how to sail. And so he arranged it. The most perfect sailing night possible! I was going to learn how to sail!!! Read the rest of this entry…