Happy Mother’s Day 2016! With each hectic day that is part of the journey of motherhood, I am reminded that it does take a village! My village is strong, beautiful, tender, fierce, fun, genuine, caring and amazing…and many other descriptive words that I don’t have room to all write out in this article. My tireless […]
Oh Boy Do I Get It Now! Happy Birthday Mom!
April 25, 2016 By
Happy Birthday Mom! April 26th! It is your special day. And I need to tell you something! And that something is…. Oh boy do I get it now! With my firstborn about to graduate high school and my baby girl starting high school, I am reminded of how fast time flies and how this magic […]
Money Saving & Green Graduation Celebration Ideas
April 20, 2016 By
For those of you with graduating seniors, I wrote this and did this 3TV segment in 2016 with tips and ideas to have the perfect grad party. Ours went very well! Take a look and happy grad party planning. Also a big congrats to the parents, too. A bittersweet time for sure! Manic: Graduation season […]
A Letter To My Soon To Be High School Graduate
April 19, 2016 By
Dear son, Forgive me for my strangeness during your senior year, especially during this last action packed, emotionally charged phase. 30 days from today, you, my 6’1 baby boy, will take the nicely pressed gown off the hanger and grab the matching blue cap and head to high school for one last time. I teared […]
Moms: Senior Year is the Worst…In a Good Way!
March 24, 2016 By
Moms (and dads) of teens. This is written for moms, but I sure have seen my fair share of emotional papas who find senior year to be bittersweet on their hearts, too. Read this or bookmark this to read before or during your child’s senior year in high school. It just may be therapeutic for […]
Our One Big Change & One Small One for Allergy Relief!
February 24, 2016 By
Allergy season has arrived! Ah choo….watery eyes, scratchy throat…ugh! No fun! So our family tried two remedies, one giant one and one small daily change (a drink recipe) and both have made a difference. I have actually been off Claritin for three months now! Check out these ideas out that I showed in my recent […]
Tackling the Zika Virus: What Moms Should Know
February 23, 2016 By
On Sunday, I looked out my bedroom window and saw a huge mosquito. I was so relieved that it was on the outside of the window. Even here in Phoenix with our sunny dry desert climate, we still get those pesky little pistols that seem to find me and my daughter especially tasty. I immediately […]
Family Wellness Ideas That Have Been Working For Us!
February 22, 2016 By
From my KTVK Channel 3 segment on the “Your Life A to Z” show that aired today…. The main reason I blog is to share ideas on how to make our manic lives a bit more managed and when I find natural remedies that work, I get really excited and I can’t wait to share […]
My Parenting Lesson: Almost Missed the Writing on the Wall!
February 17, 2016 By
My Facebook memory page brought this article up today. I wrote it three years ago when my girl was 11 years old. Such a good parenting lesson to remember and to share again, especially for those of you with school-aged kids and tweens. Ever had a parenting lesson that you learned from like this one…. […]
Got College Bound Teens? Our Best SAT & ACT Prep Tips
February 2, 2016 By
Many of you have asked me what my son did to prepare for both the ACT and the SAT. And when I asked my now 18-year-old son how he studied, I was surprised by his answer! First let me tell you about his test results, which makes this Mama pretty happy and relieved as I […]
Honest Reflections As My Son’s Youth Hockey Years Wind Down
January 20, 2016 By
Is this really his final team hockey picture? We started this journey back in 2004 and had no idea that we were about to become a full fledged traveling hockey family on a ride that would last 14 years! 14 years later that picture shows a young man standing over 6 feet tall with a […]
Third Year Running With Our Family’s Memory Jar!
January 2, 2016 By
Since I received some cool comments, questions and messages on my Facebook pages about our family’s recent tradition of having a memory jar, here is what it is all about. We simply set out an empty jar on the first day of the year. Through the year, each of us slips in little papers listing […]
Holiday Shopping & Kids: Toys, Technology & Trade-offs
December 3, 2015 By
Manic: The holiday gift wish list from kids with requests for all kinds of electronic items from conversing dolls to elaborate gaming devices and more. To further complicate things, age appropriateness must also be considered. Toys are not simple play things like they were when I was a child back in the late 60s and […]
Our Harris Home Cats Featured In Magazine Article!
November 27, 2015 By
Our household has four fab felines who recently became celebrities with a magazine article all about them! Yes, Tucker, Stanley, Lucy and Sadie are the star of the show this month.Foothills Living Magazine writer Stephanie Hayden asked to interview our four very spoiled furry family members and the cats gave me their blessing to speak […]
18: A Milestone Birthday & 9 Months To Go
November 15, 2015 By
My first born turned 18 today. And in a quick 9 months (kind of ironic), he will leave us to go to college. Back in 1997, I anxiously waited 9 months for my first born, my little baby boy to come into the world. Now 18 years later, he is anxiously waiting 9 months to […]
