All Parent

I have known many kinds of love during my life, and I'm grateful for all of them. I've known "dog love" with all of my Shih Tzus, "nature love" with my excursions into God's vast wonderlands, "friend love" with the wonderful friendships God has blessed me with, "romantic love" with more than one man whom I have loved with my whole heart, and "God Love" with God Almighty through His Son, Jesus Christ. But three times in my life, I have known a "Child's Love" and I consider those times the...Read Full Story

How are you sleeping at night? Are you bragging because you can get by on 5 hours per night? Do you not understand how important sleep is to your brain's ability to function?From Starbucks, to Red Bull, to No-Doz, Americans are showing signs of addiction to caffeine. Sixty percent of us drink a cup of coffee a day. On average we will drink 52 gallons of soda this year. And Starbucks—they get a whopping $5.3 billion of our collective dough. Whether we are chemically stimulating because we do...Read Full Story

I am always on the quest to become Super Mom, but I have found the woman that has accomplished it. Her name is Melanie Roach, and if you have been reading about the Olympics, you probably have heard about her. She is unbelievable! She has three kids, one of whom is autistic, she runs a gymnastics studio, her husband is a Washington State House of Representatives legislator, she teaches Sunday school, and she is now competing in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in the woman's weight lifting...Read Full Story

I want to go green. I really do. But I have to admit that I am a little overwhelmed and don't know where to start. I certainly can't afford a hybrid car right now, though I would LOVE to reap the benefits of its superb gas mileage. And we don't really have the option of a compost right now, so cutting back on our garbage output has to remain delegated to forcing my husband to eat all the really old leftovers. I was thinking about sewing all our clothes and making them out of hemp, but...Read Full Story

What I did not mention yesterday is the interesting conversation that followed my trip to Whole Foods. I was in my car thinking about my highly inflated purchases, and wondering how much of my food’s airfare I had paid. My grapes were from Chile, my oranges from South Africa, and my avocado from Argentina. It dawned on me that my fruit is worldlier than I am. So, I thought we could kill some time by discussing travel, good hotels, and sightseeing. The grapes were extremely friendly. Well...Read Full Story

Well, in the wake of my two Humor Carnival posts, I thought I would switch gears a little and write about something a little more serious, a little more poignant and a lot closer to my heart.My daughter.I am just flabbergasted at how infatuated with her I still am today, two and a half years after her birth. When she was first born, I would sit for hours, just watching her sleep, her face so peaceful and perfect. I tried to memorize the curves of her baby cheeks, her baby nose and the...Read Full Story

How many moms (and/or dads) out there have taken your children out somewhere, perhaps the grocery store, the doctor's office or just to the park to play, and had someone tell you that your child looks like someone? I am curious as to how other parents feel about this. I suppose it should be flattering if it was someone attractive or famous, but even so, do other people find this annoying? My daughter, pictured left with me, looks like one of the Olsen twins. I am not sure which one; I guess...Read Full Story

"Being a dad means putting your hand on your child's chest at night tomake sure she's still breathing"-From the book "1001 Things it Means to be a Dad" by Harry. H Harrison Jr.Isn't that the truth, I can't count the times my fiancee and I have taken turns checking on our two little baby's just to see if they're still breathing. It's especially fun when you've laid them down for bed and it's dark in the room, you squint and squint, but in the end you put your hand on their chest just to be...Read Full Story

First of all, a big patronizing pat on the back for ME! You wanna know why? Because I did Turbo Sculpt and got through the whole sweaty, agonizing 50 minutes WHILE my daughter was awake and in the same room. It was Toddler Jam time in my house, and she lifted 2 pound weights, did squats and got down on the floor with me and did ab work. Intermittently she would sigh, wipe her brow and say "whew, this is too hard," and switch to tending to her baby dolls, but that was fine with me. And I didn...Read Full Story

Three's company anyone? No, not the hilarious "original" 70's show that I loved to watch as a kid (even though I was naively unaware of the premise behind it), but the age-old question. Is three good company or a crowd? This is a question that I may be finding the answer to, although I was pretty sure yesterday that I knew that two was the better number. We all know that one is the loneliest number, and then again, two can be as bad as one, it's the loneliest number since the number one. Now...Read Full Story