Having found myself dreadfully ill this past week, I now find myself rather contemplative in the aftermath. Much of our fair Midwestern city, it seems, is locked in the grips of a vicious cycle of the stomach flu, which is then followed by an immediate case of respiratory illness that moves directly to the lungs. Upon recovering from my gastrointestinal symptoms, I, too soon developed the congested, hacking cough that appears to be the telltale sign of this "disease's" killer… Read More

If you’re just getting caught up, click here for my thoughts on School Volunteerism and the beginning of my list of the best volunteer “Gigs to Grab.”

More Gigs to Grab:

• Library Duty: I love this gig because you get to spend time with your kid in an activity outside of the regular classroom. Kids usually love going to the library.

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I’m sure I won’t be the first one to tell you that every mother is a working mother. That said, there is no excuse -- that’s right...I said no excuse -- for not volunteering in your child’s school. School volunteerism is mandatory, even if it requires doing work at the school on your days off, cutting out things for the teacher at home in the evenings or hanging the little cherubs’ masterpieces for the art fair in the wee hours… Read More

So, any guesses on how much the groceries for our trip to the Ronald McDonald House cost?

Perhaps you're wondering what we used the rest of the groceries for. Well, we made cornbread by combining the cornbread mix and the yellow cake mix. You prepare the mixes according to the directions on each box. Mix this by hand to avoid overmixing. Then you sort of split the difference on the baking instructions, erring toward the side of the cake… Read More

Last week, I had the pleasure of accompanying my 8th grade Girl Scout troop to one of our local Ronald McDonald Houses to prepare and serve a meal. We had made brownies in preparation for our visit back in November, and they have been waiting patiently (the brownies...) in my deep freeze, complete with a note taped on them that said: "Keep Out!! GS Brownies!" After all, I couldn't let the girls' charitable efforts go to waste! And around… Read More

In recent months, my girls and I have really enjoyed settling down for an evening of videos. Admittedly, it's hard to find a common evening when we're all free, but when we do, it's really a treat. We truly look forward to eating dinner in the den, dimming the lights and getting into a movie that we'll all appreciate. I especially like the ones that have a message, though I challenge any mother to find movies with perfect heroines, no… Read More