Regular readers will know that my oldest has auto-immune Type 1 diabetes, which necessitates a blood sugar check somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:00 a.m - 3:00 a.m. But last night, this Mama pulled an all-nighter!

I usually stay up if my son is high (and sometimes if he’s low) to re-check in an hour. This morning, he was low, so I went and got some juice, woke him up and adjusted his insulin pump.

As I left the kitchen, I was met in the hall by my daughter, who informed me that she had one of the nosebleeds she frequently suffers from. After... more

If kids live in a two parent family, it is important that both parents are actively involved in parenting the child.

As parents we can tend to fall into ruts and have one parent be the primary caregiver and disciplinarian, while the other parent is the “fun” parent. It is unfair to both parents and to the child. It upsets the parent/child relationship and can cause triangulation between the parents and child. Not that some of this isn’t normal. We all had someone in our lives that would tell us yes after mom or dad said no.

I have five weekends... more

Highs and Lows are a tradition in our church. We do them at some point during each Sunday school class, we start each meeting or gathering with them and they are one of the things that the kids in our church love to do. This does not have to be limited to church by any means.

Let me explain what highs and lows are. Each person gets a chance to say what the best part of the day was, and then what the worst part of the day was. Kids absolutely love this. It gives them a chance to talk about their day and be heard. My Sunday school kids would remind me of it repeatedly... more

Last night my daughter, Hannah, and my husband had a “date” together. The Milwaukee Brewers gave away 5,000 tickets to last night’s game and they went to the game together.

This is not something we would have normally planned since it was a school night, but the opportunity was too good to resist. They had a great time at the game when the Brewers one with a grand slam home run in extra innings. Pretty exciting for Hannah’s first time at a baseball game.

Hannah loves to spend time when it’s just her and her daddy. A few times through the year I... more

When I was little, my mom was rarely ill. But the few times I remember her ever having a cold, I would go into her room and offer to “help” and she would just say how she wanted to be left alone. Oh, my poor little feelings were so hurt. But, now that I’m the mom of three, I think I understand where mom was coming from!

I blogged last week about my abnormal mammogram finding . Today, I had the follow-up biopsy. I’ve been preparing the kids for Mommy not feeling 100% over the last few days.... more

Last month, I blogged about enrolling my children in swim classes to honor a hope expressed by the children’s birth mother.

Today, the children finished their first two-week session of the summer. They are enrolled in four two-week sessions altogether. They received certificates and the two youngest passed all of their requirements for the next level. As mentioned, my oldest has never really been comfortable in water, so whereas he didn’t pass to the next level... more

Because we home school - and home school year ‘round - we don’t really have an “official” herald that summer is here. No end of school year kick-off to really mark the passing of another grade. I chose to home school year ‘round, because, as a child with undiagnosed ADD (I wasn’t diagnosed until adulthood), I found that making the transition from the purely recreational back into a formal, structured schedule was really hard. Plus, it seemed like I had to play “catch up” a little bit since my brain atrophied a bit over the summer! This way, it’s not like pulling teeth... more

My kids all have varying interests: cooking, ballet, sewing and knitting...Oh, and did I mention I was talking about my sons as well?

Because I am an avid knitter, I thought teaching my oldest to knit when he was in kindergarten might help him strengthen the manual dexterity that often develops later in boys, and that in turn, would help him with writing. As it turned out, he enjoyed knitting. In fact, when he did his homeschool service project last year, he chose a knitting... more

Yesterday was my daughter's dress rehearsal for the first ever ballet recital! We had the actual performance this morning. I sat in the audience of 200 or so proud, beaming parents as their children danced to a variety of songs. Bows were lost, shoes came off, cues were missed, amid many missteps and forgotten routines. But, if you ask any parent who was in attendance, it was perfectly flawless!

Following up on the Mother-Daughter Bonding idea from yesterday, my daughter (obviously)... more

My daughter lost her first tooth before she came to us. Ironically, it occurred during one of our weekly phone calls to her foster home as we were getting to know the kids long distance. So, in a way, we got to participate in that first, but it was not the same as witnessing it in person.

For what seems like weeks, my youngest son has been giving us almost hourly status reports on his loose tooth. It's been wiggly; very wiggly; really, really wiggly...you get the idea! Today, however, after many false alarms, he finally lost his first tooth! Man, oh, man, was... more