reviews
-
It’s Time To Break The Shroud Of Secrecy on Women’s Health
As women, we are masters at dispensing wisdom and knowledge. This is how we learn, how we connect and how we grow. We share the best way to preserve herbs, tricks for feeding the picky one, and how to stop the gray. It’s just too bad that we stop short, depriving others and ourselves of the most critical and at times life-saving threads of information. When it comes to female health, we tend to let silence fall over the room like a cozy teal-colored wool blanket, because we think we’ve got this. We can handle this one. After all, haven’t we been tough enough already? Because, hasn’t motherhood been about this…
-
The Clues are in the “Ums” and “Ahs”
“It just doesn’t feel like Christmas unless I’m out making deliveries.” While most kids were busy making Christmas lists, Karmen was out with her mom and siblings, giving presents away. “In our spare time, they wiped down the shelves off the food pantry.” When I’m interviewing someone for an article, I usually try to type everything they say into my Ipad — so I don’t miss a word. Every “um,” “ah,” “and” and “well” is there… and I know, if there are stumbled, stuttered words over a particular topic, that this is the that needs to be explored. Every stumble is a clue to something bigger. You learn more about what is not said,…
-
Supervised Teen Driving: A Golden Opportunity To Connect
Just when the doors of the bedroom slams shut to reveal the “keep out†sign meant for you, we get an opening—and it’s a big one. While teenagers are clamoring for more privacy, an identity of their own, it’s time for them to learn to drive. And they need you, parents, to teach them. By law, in Ohio, they need 50 hours of supervised driving with you. And for reasons I’ve outlined below, AAA says you should spend at least 100 hours of supervised driving. Do you realize what a gift those hours are? You and your teen are alone in the car, the radio off, and there’s nothing but…
-
Exploding Pumpkins at the Kitchen Science Lab Birthday Party
Remember the Mad Science Parties? Nobody has them anymore. The problem was, as I remember them, the kids were all sitting down during those mad science demonstrations. As if they were in a classroom. Only if you raised and waved your hand high enough were you “chosen” to join the stage to be an assistant to the scientist. I also remember the tension and stress hanging in the air — the scientists were nervous about keeping the kids in their seats, hoping the cloud of colored dry ice and the fizz of baking soda and vinegar would be enough to hold them in their seats, just long enough to get through the…
-
Baptizing Doughnuts: A Last Day of School Tradition (Win This Cookbook!)
One bright snowy Winter day last year, when the kids had been climbing the walls on their third or fourth snow day (it was actually a “cold” day) I met a charming mom who explained to me about their “Snow Day Traditon.” It’s a big deal. Grandpa comes over, and they make Doughnuts! Wow. I missed that one. I didn’t make a snow day any more special than just — being out of school! So, I decided that since National Doughnut Day is today, June 6, this ties in perfectly with the last day of school. So, we’re starting a new end of school tradition — School’s Out Day —…
-
The Cure For Cabin Fever? Make It a Beautiful Feast with Gayler’s Latest Soup Book
I know you. You’re the one with the de-shelved house, the board games strewn across the floor, where there are more dirty cups in your dishwasher than people. I have that same house; where the kids haven’t left the house for days. School was cancelled because of the cold. There’s a half-torn-apart fort in the living room. Yet, we all tend to congregate in one room, the warmest one, the kitchen, where the cabin fever has our nerves on edge. And it takes all my effort just to try to quiet the guilt I feel inside because they are spending way too much time on their screens. I spotted the UPS man get…
-
Cinnamon Power Powder For Quick and Easy Breakfast
When I wake up in the dark hours of the morning, it is the thought of that steamy hot cup of tea that gently coaxes my feet out from the covers and onto the floor. If I hurry, I can take my first sip, in silence, before the mayhem starts. It’s not that the boys are boisterous in the morning — they’re actually pretty quiet, at first. The little ones come downstairs and hide under their blankets over the hot registers, while the older ones are content to stay in bed. I’m the one who makes all the nosie. Soon, I’ll have to start — breaking that silence, and begin all of that…
-
Cinnamon Power Powder For Quick and Easy Breakfast
When I wake up in the dark hours of the morning, it is the thought of that steamy hot cup of tea that gently coaxes my feet out from the covers and onto the floor. If I hurry, I can take my first sip, in silence, before the mayhem starts. It’s not that the boys are boisterous in the morning — they’re actually pretty quiet, at first. The little ones come downstairs and hide under their blankets over the hot registers, while the older ones are content to stay in bed. I’m the one who makes all the nosie. Soon, I’ll have to start — breaking that silence, and begin all of that…
-
Do You Really Know What You Should To Get You Safely Through The Next Phase of Life? I Didn’t
If you have trouble keeping up with your ten-year-old running beside you, there’s a problem — and it’s not only because you are out of shape. The reason you’re panting could be something much more serious. I was naive. You would think, wouldn’t you, that as grown, perceptive women of the 21st century, we’d be armed with all the information we need to enter menopause with our eyes wide open. Why wouldn’t we? After all, when we entered womanhood, we did it with free samples, “the talk†at school, and of course, whether we liked it or not, our mother walking us through the whole thing, right beside us. Although…
