My family is having a picnic on Sat. to celebrate the 4th of July – a little break in the middle of the busy day to relax and have some fun with the extended family. You see, here in Utah County we take our Independence Day celebrations seriously, and we’ve been having a week long pre-party -  everything from the hot air Balloon Fest to Art Shows to Soccer and Golf Tournaments – all leading up to the Big Day on Sat.
And then the real party begins on the …

Did you ever wonder if Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary actually had a garden? Was it just a line? Or did she truly have a garden, and if so, what did this garden look like?
Oh, sure. Maybe it’s not important to you.
But it’s important to me. Because for the first time in my life, I started a garden.
I say “started” because the words started and garden went together then. Because there was more than one vegetable in the garden. Now it’s not really a garden as much as it is several …

The Dogs Ate My Couch
Okay, so maybe that is a slight exaggeration. They didn’t exactly eat the whole couch, but they might as well have. There is now a dinner plate-sized hole in the back cushion of my living room couch. When they decided to go on the prowl for a midnight snack  last night , they couldn’t have chosen to munch on my old,  black velvet couch in the basement…nope, they decided, instead, to snack on my nice, new tan leather couch which sits prominently in …

 
I knew we were headed for trouble after hearing that Nestle’s refrigerated cookie dough had been recalled. Several cases of E-coli were reported, prompting store owners to pull every flavor of dough from their shelves quicker than I could say, “cookie, please?”
Then came the call from my mother, who is physically unable to offer less than three deserts at family get-togethers. One of the choices the Sunday prior had been the cookie brand in question, hot out of the oven.
My son was momentarily devastated.
“I’m I gonna get sick now? Does …

Ahhhhh…spring break is finally here. Seems like we’ve been waiting for it since the day after school began last year. A break from the routine of alarm clocks, bed times, endless homework, car pools, nagging. I am as excited as the kids are. It’s hard work to parent school children. A lot of stress. A lot of responsibility keeping up with the perfect parents who are probably busy keeping up with a whole other set of perfect parents. It’s a vicious cycle…one from which I am ready for a break.

The worst room in the house, hands down, is my bedroom. I figure it’s a.) upstairs, and b.) I’m the only one who has to see it. But even the messiest of messy perfectionists can only take so much.
I decided to finally tackle the clothes piled on the ironing board, the unmade bed and general unkempt disaster area yesterday. Never one to keep things simple, I decided while I was at it, I’d put away the winter clothes and bring out the summer clothes.
Sure. I may be a little early …

Here are some ideas that will hopefully help you use up those cartons of beautifully dyed,hard boiled eggs that are lurking on your fridge shelf..

In other words, there was no five-foot rip-your-arm-out-of-its-socket pull-to-start cord. No on/off button. Just a cylindrical set of blades powered solely by the muscle behind the handle. Hadn’t this type of lawnmower gone out with the Stone Age? I was going to be mowing said yard with a giant pair of scissors on wheels.

So it wasn’t a real boat, but “the” boat, as in we almost missed the boat.
Since Colton was old enough to walk, he’s carried a hockey stick. Watched hockey movies. Pretended he was a hockey player. My dilemma was two-fold: no ice rinks with hockey programs for toddlers, and no money for which to pay the astronomical ice rink dues even if such a program existed.
About six weeks ago that Colton brought home a flyer for a local inline hockey program. There was nothing to consider, nothing to talk about, …

Think back to your school days. There was always a bully, there were kids who struggled with reading and excelled in math, others who claimed the title of class clown or nerd. Kids label themselves without any help from their educators. And unfortunately, those labels tend to stick, whether or not they are accurate.