Last year, I struck a fairly uneasy balance between eating right and exercise: I was able to make up for any poor eating I did because I was training so many hours a week. I could have - and probably should have - been losing weight, but instead, I just maintained.

Well, it's not like that this year. Without a major goal I'm training for, I'm only working out about five hours a week or so. That's a perfectly reasonable amount… Read More

On Monday, The Boy came home from school and said, "I have no homework!"

Skeptical, I asked him how his memorization of a poem for Friday's Speech Meet was going.

He immediately went into defensive mode. "I'm never going to be able to learn it. It's stupid. Why should I have to remember some dumb poem?"

I was like, "Dude. It's your responsibility to do all of your school work. Plus, you rocked it last year - why wouldn't you want to do… Read More

As I've discussed so many times before, Rock Band is an incredibly fun game. But sometimes, The Boy wants to play - and his parents have bills to pay, dishes to wash, laundry to fold.

So lately, under supervision of course, I've been letting him play on Xbox Live. Xbox Live is an internet service that matches players against each other - for the game Rock Band, to do guitar battles.

Users can put on headsets and talk to one another; we've… Read More

A friend instant-messaged me earlier this week. "Jess, who is watching your kids Friday night," he asked.

"The best babysitter in the world," I replied. She really is: she is totally engaged with the kids when she's here, they respect her and behave for her, she doesn't let them make big messes, she puts them to bed on time, and she leaves our house cleaner than it was when she got there. Oh, and she won't accept more than $6 per hour.… Read More

On Saturday morning, my girlfriends came over so we could go running. Somehow, we got an amazing, gorgeous day for February in Seattle - sunny and warm.

And my kid, The Boy, was sitting in the living room, in front of the Rock Band drum set, drumming away. There's a reason he's the best drummer in the house.

But on a warm, sunny morning, when Mom and her friends are headed out to get some exercise, it's not time to practice. I… Read More

Two weeks ago, my daughter's preschool teacher approached me as I was dropping her off. "Jessica, can I speak with you a moment?" she asked.

Immediately my mind jumped to, "Oh no. What has she done now?" My daughter can be a fabulous, wonderful child...or one big tantrum in pink shoes.

"I wanted to ask you if I give some extra time to Camille - specifically to work on reading. She knows how to read, you know," said the preschool teacher.

I… Read More