Lately, I’ve started thinking that there is no such thing as work/life balance.  Whoever made up this term was (like the rest of us) striving for it and believed that it was an attainable goal.

There are tons and tons of summer bucket lists out there, but here are 25 creative ideas you might not have thought of to add to your list before!

When I ended the blog last time, I found myself sitting in the office of a pediatric rheumatologist with my 4-year-old daughter, whose knee was the size of a softball, wondering how in the world we ended up here. We had been through knee aspirations at the surgery center, specialists, testing, etc., with no answers yet. Did kids really get arthritis? Or–was it something worse?

always knew that I would have to teach my children how to be patient, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that it dawned on me that I needed to teach myself as well.

Spring is here! Pending any awful pranks from Mother Nature, we will start being regulars at the park very soon. While we haven’t come close to listing all the wonderful parks the Fox Valley offers, here are 15 worth visiting this year. If we missed your favorite, leave it in the comments.

March is National Nutrition Month and the perfect time to think about ways to improve your family’s eating habits. We can always do better when it comes to feeding our children and ourselves. My husband and I have experimented with various ways of eating in the past, but now that we’ve added children into the mix, meals (and eating in general) have definitely changed.

Reading is one of the most important life skills. Yet some children and adults will never know the joy reading can bring. So, how do we instill in our children the love of reading? Here are some steps that we can take to start fueling the desire to read even before they can.

Trying to think back to that hectic time in our lives, I can honestly say that I don’t remember if it was the orthopedic surgeon or our pediatrician who recommended that we see a rheumatologist. Again, we were dumbfounded, looking for answers and logic in a situation that seemed anything but logical or explanatory. As I sat there that day, I remember staring at the bio of Dr. David Keim. A rheumatologist? For a 4-year-old? How did we get here?

I am all for anything that will save time or make my life easier these days. It’s amazing how many things I *think* I will accomplish until all of the mundane day-to-day household and family responsibilities get in the way. Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather read stories and build towers with my kids than do dishes and laundry, but we do need clean dishes and clothes too. When I find a mom hack that works for us, I run with it.

My younger daughter came home from school recently with a library book. It was called “The Book with No Pictures.” She requested that I read it immediately, and I’m not proud to say that I tried to blow her off.