Now, the only journal I keep is a small, 5-year daily calendar with about 4 tiny lines for each day. You only have space for one single memory per day. I bought this calendar when my twins were born four years ago, and I have not kept up very well until this year.

Sounds like an escape from the everyday, right? This is what you will experience when you have a facial at Hope Della Skincare in Bellevue. For busy moms, the relaxation component probably ranks at the top for reasons to get a facial, but it also has great benefits for your skin.

From here on out, I am challenging myself to see myself the way my child sees me, and to be the person that my second thought believes I am. And, it cannot stop with me – I challenge you to do the same.

So I challenge you this summer to set some goals. And to make it more fun, I’m framing them into something I’m calling the 1000 – 100 – 10 challenge!

Let's start having fun by adventuring this year! Taking adventures can pull us out of our comfort zones and stretch our learning.

It’s the final countdown to summer! You can smell the campfires in the air, the laughter of neighbor kids playing until darkness sets in, and relaxation right around the corner! So what are you doing to celebrate the start of summer vacation? I’m throwing my kids a party!

Let’s face it, Moms, we all need a night out! Being a mom is an exhausting, self-sacrificing, and, most of the time, thankless job (even though it is worth the work). So sometimes we need to get out of all of the serving and just have a little fun. So gather up some friends and try these ideas and places for your next Mom's Night Out!

We started very simply when my daughters hunted for the first letters of their names by going on a “letter hunt.” I wrote the letter N on five star-shaped Post-it notes and the letter A on five more. I asked my girls to sit in a special spot out of view from the area I planned to hide the Post-its.

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?

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.