Family Musings

I've been watching a lot of Hoaders recently, and one of the episodes I saw involved a family whose entire home was over run by bed bugs. This really freaked me out. It was so bad, the parents were in danger of losing their children if they didn't get the problem fixed. So it got me thinking... how do you keep bed bugs from wreaking havoc in your home? What if you find out you already have them? Then, I met Jenny from Ohio online. And she had 2 bed bugs outbreaks within 6 months. Her experience dealing with this problem led her to start her own website and even write a free e-book to help other moms out. I asked her to share what she learned with you so we could all take advantage of her experience. *********************************** How to Check for Bed Bugs  For anyone unfortunate enough to have bed bugs in their home, it's essential that you know how to check for bed bugs in the correct manner. Not only to find all the most obvious places that bed bugs hide, but...

I recently had the opportunity to virtually meet a extraordinary woman. She is Tracy, Jack's mom. That might not sound like anything special at first, until you hear her story. I asked her to share a little bit with you because I think the story or Tracy and Jack is amazing. ************************ God works in amazing and mysterious ways. I now know this is true, but not so much 7 years ago when my son Jack was diagnosed with autism . Jack was 2 and although I knew from the time he was born that something was not quite right, I never dreamed he would be diagnosed with autism. In those early months I could not even wrap my mind around this, this autism, but right away I got busy. I'm a single mother and it was up to me to make a difference. I believed Jack should and could have an amazing life and was determined to do whatever it took to make that happen. I never let a little thing called autism get in our way. From day one the miracles started coming one right after an...

I like having a clean house. But I hate cleaning. And Spring Cleaning? Forget about it! All year long I fantasize about the various Spring cleaning tasks that I just know I'll be eager to do when Spring comes. I mean, after all, Spring cleaning is supposed to be fun and help us usher in the season of open windows and blue skies. But then March 21st comes, and I am always distracted by the blue skies. So Spring cleaning never officially happens in my house. The base boards never get dusted. The cabinets don't get cleaned out. The crumbs that accumulate in the silverware holder stay put. (Extra entry to the person who knows how they even get there in the first place!) The top of the refrigerator stays icky. You see, the list of ought to's is just too long for beautiful Spring days. I can never bring myself to get those yearly tasks done in a timely manner. Can any of you relate? There is one part of the house that my ick factor is pretty low on though, and that's th...

I didn't get to go to a MOPS leadership training today that I had really been looking forward to. It's okay though, because God had other ideas and kept me in my own town this weekend for a woman's conference at my church (more on that later). And even though I didn't get to go to Summit (the aforementioned MOPS leadership training), I was able to follow the convo on Twitter by using  #MOPSsummit . Now that I've had a chance to catch up on my Twitter Feed, here's what I didn't learn at Summit, but what other moms did and shared with the rest of the Twitterverse. ( Caution, this post is very specific to MOPS and leadership. Don't feel obligated to read it if you aren't interested in either of these topics.) It takes a lot of work to make a national event like this happen at locations all over the US. Not only do the paid staff in Colorado work hard, but volunteer Field Leaders (like @ShawnaLeeIrish , @TraceySolomon , and others) all over go thro...

I wrote the other day that my girls love fruit. Keeping fresh fruit on hand is a must at my house, but sometimes bananas and grapes don't travel well, especially if you don't like smushed bananas or car temperature grapes. In the past, if I felt like splurging, I would buy what we call "squeezy fruit" to go with our lunches, but at about $1 a piece, it really was a treat. One brand we particularly liked (mostly because they carry it at my local Publix) is  Go Go Squeeze . I bought a 4-pack on clearance this week and thought, there has to be a place to get these things cheaper. Then it hit me - Amazon.com! So I went to check and guess what, with Subscribe and Save, I was able to buy the appleapple Go Go Squeeze  flavor for just $0.61 each. Yay! We've got a lot of picnics and car trips in our future and this will make them easier. Now I just need to find a place to keep these so the girls don't get into them. How do you keep fruit safe and cold when y...

Today's photo is of a picture of someone I could never imagine my life without. It's almost impossible to decide on just one person. But, in honor of a recent birthday, I'm going to show you some pictures of my mom.  She's not really a fan of the camera, so these are almost a year old. But my friend Abby (a central FL photographer) did a great job capturing one of my favorite things about my mom - how much she loves her family. I think each of these photos shows that she truly enjoys the company of her grandchildren. And that we enjoy her company too! Happy birthday G-ma!

The nice ladies over at SocialMoms.com asked me how I keep my family happy. And one of the the easy answers to that is I try to keep their favorite foods in the house. Each one of them likes something different and it can be a challenge at time to meet all of their needs... but you know what they say about the way to a man's heart. It's true at my house too, but not just for the man! :) Bruce likes ice cream, home baked chocolate chip cookies, chips and dip, and beef. If I can manage to keep at least one of those things easily accessible to him on any given evening, then I have succeeded in keeping him happy. I think I get the most points for homemade cookies though. And I just use the Toll House recipe on the bag! Yanfei (our Chinese exchange student) is 16  17 and likes sweets, including fruit. She seems easier to please though and can be satisfied with a jar of Nutella and fresh bread. Though I think she's eaten it straight from the jar before. You'd think that...