One of the things that has always been so important to me about raising children is to raise them without gender stereotypes.

As such, until my kids were old enough to ask for the toys they wanted, I always bought them gender-inspecific toys: nature puzzles, blocks, games, and so on. The Girl didn't have a single doll until she was over two!

What I didn't realize, though, was that it wouldn't matter. My son would turn sticks into guns, and my daughter… Read More

When we first decided to sell our house, I told my husband we needed to move out and live in an apartment while the house was on the market. After all, with today's conditions, who knows how long it would take to sell, and with two small kids, how could we possibly keep the house in show condition?

Well, then we looked at the cost of temporary housing - near my office, close to $2,000 a month! There's no way we… Read More

I'm often asked this question: How do you possibly do it all? You work full-time in software development, you parent two children, you nurture a relationship with your husband, you help him, a small business owner, by doing a lot of his marketing, you manage a household, and then you're a triathlete who trains 10+ hours a week. How does it all fit in?

Yeah, I do all that. My answer is usually two parts: a) I don't sleep much, and b)… Read More

So, as a Fit Mama, Halloween brings some difficult issues for me.

How can I let my children dress up and run around the neighborhood like I did as a kid and enjoy getting as much candy as they possibly can in light of my own weight issues and the obesity epidemic in this country? I want them to be kids and have fun...yet I worry about their weight and all the healthy food that will inevitably be displaced by candy.

Last… Read More

Literally for years, every time we would walk into REI (a large outdoor gear and clothing store), The Boy would look at the huge indoor rock climbing wall and say, "Can I do that?"

And for years, we would walk over to the desk, where a line was marked with pen on the counter and a sign read, "Participants must be 48 inches tall to climb the rock wall." The Boy would make himself as tall as possible...but he didn't reach… Read More

In an effort to lose some weight and spend more time with me doing something I love, the hubby has asked me to create a half-marathon training plan for him - and figure out how the whole family can participate in his training.

Yay!

So this is what I came up with. My husband owns his own business and therefore doesn't have a ton of time. Also, we take turns dropping the kids off at school - so each of us has… Read More