I have fallen into a dinner rut. I make the same things over and over and over again, and while it’s easy to plan my shopping list it is getting quite boring. That’s why I was so excited to find Meals Matter - a great website whose tagline is “healthy meal planning made simple”. Healthy? Simple? I’m in!

Our first-born is gaining more and more of the stereotypical qualities of an oldest child. The latest, and not so great, is bossiness. From what I can tell he isn’t bossy with his friends at all, but I’m afraid that sooner or later the bossiness he demonstrates with his younger brother might spill over into his friendships. Today I turned to some websites to help me figure out the best way to deal with this (gosh, how did parents do anything before the internet?).

My kids are only four and one years old, and already I am nervous about the teenage years. I have friends who think this is totally ridiculous that I am already stressed about this, but let’s be honest - these are my friends who rarely did anything dangerous or illegal as teens and seemed to always treat their parents at least somewhat nicely. I, on the other hand, well…I never got arrested or anything but I was no angel. I dread the days where my kids might treat my parents as I treated mine, and I dread the nights that I worry about where they are and what they are doing. The scary thing to me is that I feel like my parents are and were great parents and yet I gave them all sorts of trouble. Why? I’m guessing peer pressure.

Fifty-three degrees! Fifty-three degrees! It was fifty-three degrees today here! Can you tell I’m excited? If you’ve been reading my previous posts then you know that my family and I were hitting a winter wall and suffering from severe cases of cabin fever. Sure, the snow is fun and all when it’s pretty, white, and powdery…but by this time of year it’s icy, dirty, and definitely not pretty. On top of that I’m completely tired of taking fifteen minutes to leave the house because we have to bundle in so many layers. Throwing on a thin coat and hitting the door has been in my daydreams for awhile now.

I am always aiming to parent gently. I hate screaming, threats, and huge punishments. Some days I do great with this, and others (like today) I fail miserably. Today has been a day of frustration, threats, and mean voices - typical for a toddler and preschooler, right? Unfortunately the frustration, threats, and mean voices have been from me.