My Little Life

One of the things I love about having a blog, is the lessons I learn. The knowledge I gain from insightful readers, like you. I tend to get very passionate about things, emotional even, and when my emotions are raw, I tend to word vomit. Just purge whatever thoughts are in my mind before I process them thoroughly and in the end? Well, I can come off sounding like a b-word. In my " Take Back our Kids " post, I realized, almost immediately after hitting "Publish", that perhaps I should've sat on that one a bit, but I truly believe that once something is "put out there" that you don't take it back. "Taking it back" (i.e. "unpublishing" it) seems cowardly to me, and for the most part, I stand by what I said...with some exceptions. 1. I recognize, now, that some people work full time out of necessity, and my generalizations were hurtful to some that would prefer to stay home more with their kids but are either single parents o...

My daughter has been a member of a class of girls that are...um...well, they'd make great cast members of the movie "Mean Girls" and it's been going on since Kindergarten. I recall her teacher saying, "You know, I've NEVER had a class like this. The girls will only play with the girls when usually at this age they don't care who they play with." and they were already exchanging phone numbers. My sweet girl has been at the receiving end of the meanness more than a few times and let me ask you something, if a child hurts your child, do you feel the urge to threaten life and limb on them? Oh...you don't? Yeah, um...me neither. *ahem* Anyway, we've recently been in the midst of more girl drama. Ugh. Girl drama. It's the pits. But this time, my girl was the one who had said somethings that were unkind. A classmate came up to Belle and a friend on the playground and asked if they "liked *Jennifer" (*name changed) to which they res...

Well, our fun weekend is here! Out for dinner with fabulous friends tonight, out for the night with different fabulous friends Saturday, no school Monday...it's gonna be a good weekend! Looking forward to night with my handsome man out in the big city. Been awhile since we've had some time with just each other! Okay, so it seemed a lot easier to vlog tonight than to type, but then I had a cantankerous and bossy preschooler by my side who was wearing on my patience...so excuse the interruptions. Can anyone tell me why, at 35 years old, I have more hormonal breakouts than I did when I was, oh, say...34? What the heck?! Anyway...here's the linky!

Holy busy day, batman! Just now getting home from work/hockey games/impromptu mini night out with my two best girls! (And dang! Aeropostale has some cute stuff right now!) Anyway, straight to the questions!  Welcome to Five Question Friday!! You've come to the right place if you want a fun, easy post or if you've suddenly discovered your muses are just plain MIA.  Rules for 5QF:  Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear Friday morning and LINK UP! Oh, and remember (pay close attention...this is the important one)...HAVE FUN! Questions for Friday, January 18th :  (Special thanks to  Courtney ( @mom2xover2002 ) from  Austim, ADHD and The Single Mom , Pam ( @trooppetrie ) from  Troop Petrie , Adrienne (with a private Twitter account) and Kate, with 2 for the win! ( @Katieb38 ) from Kate's Life   for  these 5QF  question suggestions! I would love to link you i...

And a deal for YOU! Just wait until the end, and I'll give you all the deets on the deal Claire is offering you! A few months ago, I was lamenting ALL OVER twitter about how awful my skin was, when an email arrived in my inbox from Claire, offering to send me Arbonne's RE9 Anti-aging Skin Care line. Now, I had never heard of Arbonne before, so Claire also sent along some Arbonne info. Here's what she had to tell me: Our products are formulated in Switzerland, which is a great thing, because the safety standards for skin care and health and wellness products are much higher there than in North America, by far!!  Our products are hypoallergenic, PH correct, opthamologist and pediatrician tested.   Just as important as what we use in our products, is what we don't use.  Our products are formulated without:   Parabens Petroleum products Mineral Oils Artificial fragrance, sweeteners, colors or fragrances Animal Products or By-Products Formald...

I am about to vent. Please be prepared... When did we, as a society, become so egocentric that we have lost sight of what is best for our children? I am currently fighting a losing battle...the same (lost) battle that my own mom fought approximately 30 years ago. This battle? Kindergarten schedules. 30 years ago, it was an attempt to keep Kindergarten at 1/2 days. Clearly, that battle was for naught. And now? Now it is a battle to allow our 5 and 6 year olds the 4 day week they need...they DESERVE. I am told that the move to 5 days is "because it's what everyone wants". Well, not ME. Not me by a LONG shot. You guys, why are we even still having kids? Seriously...I know that's an extreme statement, but why? We have become slaves to our lifestyles. Slaves to the granite countertops, fancy cars, and luxury vacations when we should be "slaves" to our children. We should be living for our CHILDREN not for the "stuff". I will (I do) do withou...

Well, I was gonna try to "wow" you today with some video...I had visions of a Mama and Gram video a la Food Network material, but it turns out, I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to video. Photography? I can fake my way through it...video? Not so much. So, photos it'll be! (And I just heard a collective sigh of relief from y'all.) This recipe is one of my VERY favorites...so much so that I requested it for my birthday dinner last year. My mom thought that it was pretty hilarious because this meal is made from leftovers...so, basically, I asked for leftovers for my birthday! Yes, it's true...made from leftovers and OH SO delicious! Save that left over pork roast and beef roast next time and whip up a batch of Gram's Dumplings. You'll think you've died and gone to heaven. Okay, so that left over pork roast and beef roast that you had from a few days ago that you don't know what to do with? Grab 'em and the gravy they rod...