Canada moms: Family road trip creates memories

We just got back from a road trip with our three kids. A very long road trip. I’m talking 40-plus hours together in a vehicle.

The reaction that we get from other parents when we tell them about this road trip amuses me. Most people look, if only for just a moment, as if they just threw up in their mouth. And I get that, I do. I’m not saying that there weren’t times during the drive that I didn’t stare longingly out the window at passing airplanes. In fact, at several points during the journey, I seriously contemplated whether I would be critically injured if I jumped from the moving truck and made a break for it. And on the way home the interior of our truck started to smell suspiciously like goats had been breeding. So, yeah, there were...

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Family Meals Matter: Orange You Glad it’s almost Fall?

From MealsMatter.org

By the end of August, fall feels like it’s right around the corner. This week’s recipes help you gear up for the change in seasons with lots of oranges and browns thanks to carrots, pumpkin and mushrooms. Besides being colorful, these ingredients offer important nutrients like vitamin A, potassium and selenium.

This week’s featured family meal is perfect for a fall picnic because each dish can be made ahead of time and served cold. Bring along Chilled Carrot Ginger Soup, Salade Nicoise and Baked Pumpkin Bread for the first football game of the year.

During the rest of the week, try Asparagus Salad with Carrots and Shitake Mushrooms or Pollo...

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Enter Smuckers contest for a chance to win a trip to Disney World

This summer The J.M. Smucker Company, a family-owned-and-operated company right here in Ohio, invites you to share your special family memories and recipes in the second annual “Spreading Smucker’s Traditions” contest.

One grand prize winner will win a five-day, four-night family trip for eight to Walt Disney World Resort.

To enter, families are asked to share an original family recipe that incorporates at least ¼ cup of Smucker’s jams, jellies, preserves, or fruit butter, and the story behind how their recipe.

The recipe must have been passed down for at least two generations or is currently being passed on to a second generation, and needs to include names of all family members involved....

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As school budgets tighten, supply costs born by parents, teachers

Rainy Kaplan ran her fingers over rows of brightly colored school supplies, stopping at a bulletin-board border that caught her eyes. Red habanero, green jalapeno and yellow banana peppers dotted the strip, a perfect detail for her Spanish classroom at Westmont High School.

By the time she checked out at Let’s Learn in Hoffman Estates, she had racked up an $80 tab.

“I got off easy this time,” she said, eyeing the receipt.

Meanwhile, Vernon Hills mom Maria Gonzalez scoured a long school-supplies list that included typical learning tools like folders and pencils, along with five boxes of wet wipes for each of her two children, plus a pack of Lysol cleaning wipes.

Breast-feeding source of confusion for big brother

Nursing is natural. At least that was my silent mantra the first time I pulled up my shirt, unsnapped my bra cup and pulled Bella close in the family room.

My boys were formula-fed, so seeing me pull out a breast as they watched TV was a new experience. Really, who ever thought mom would be flashing the girls as they munched popcorn on movie night? Seriously.

While I felt uncomfortable emotionally, outwardly I acted as if it was a casual event.

Craig sat next to me on the couch and said, “You got my sissy?”

“Yes. She’s hungry.”

“Ohhh. Where’s her bottle?”

“She doesn’t have one.”

He...

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Back to school for kids…and Mom

An extra set of school supplies needed to be bought this year – something that briefly sent my kids into a bit of a frenzy.
I recently decided to go back to school and I casually mentioned this to my 9-year-old son.
His shoulders fell, his face crumpled and his body sagged.
“How long will you be away?” he asked.
Whoops! I quickly reassured him I would still be living at home and working.
I was watching the Blue’s Clue’s episode where Steve goes off to college and the actor replacing him is introduced as Steve’s brother, Joe.
The show carefully and happily describes what it means to go to college.
The next day my 3-year-old daughter overheard a phone call between myself and a friend whom I was telling about my return-to-college...

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Teddy Bear Day at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Kids are invited to bring their favorite stuffed friend to Cleveland Metroparks Zoo for Teddy Bear Day on Saturday, Sept. 26. Children with a teddy bear (or plush toy of any species) receive free admission to the zoo with a paid adult admission.

Official teddy bear doctors, specializing in fluff and flexibility, will give your fuzzy friend a checkup at the Sarah Allison Steffee Center for Zoological Medicine. All patients will receive a “Beary” Good Health certificate.

Plus, all visitors will see how the zoo takes care of one of the largest collections of bear species in North America, including sloth, grizzly and polar bears. Special Meet-the-Bear-Keeper programs will highlight the exceptional care the zoo’s bears receive and will encourage visitors to get more...

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Teaching children ‘Remember who you are’

By Christina Y, Deep South Moms Blog

When my husband was younger, his parents used to say the same thing to him and his brother every time they left the house: Remember who you are. It didn’t matter if they were heading to school, out with friends, on a date, or embracing the freedom of adulthood, they always told them the same thing. These were their words of wisdom, gained throughout a lifetime of knowledge and experience, that never failed to accompany their sons along their own paths. Even after my husband and I were married I noticed that his parents continued to say those words to him and even began saying them to me on an occasion when they felt I needed them.

I appreciated the sentiment, but never understood why those words were important until I...

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‘Grandfamilies’ face special challenges

By Ana Vecina-Suarez, McClatchy Newspapers

While friends are planning for retirement, Stella Kessler is managing appointments for her special-needs grandson. She is raising the 16-year-old by herself, balancing doctors’ visits with her own business meetings.

“You do what you have to do,” says Kessler, 64, a senior sales director with Mary Kay. “The energy is not like I had before, but I’m not a slacker either. I can get things done.”

More and more grandparents are raising grandchildren, an encore performance requiring stamina, patience and financial resources that test the promise of the golden years. In 1970, about 3 percent of all children under 18 lived in households headed by a grandparent; by 2007, 6.5 percent —...

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The great allowance debate

By Angella Dykstra, Canada Moms Blog

Last week, my eldest son decided that he needed to earn money in order to buy a lizard (long story) so he opened a “toy store.” He set up shop in our backyard with many of his favorite toys and even labeled some of them with price tags pilfered from recent purchases we had made.

We live out in the sticks, which means that there were absolutely no customers to be seen. He was a little disappointed about his lack of business but he knows full well how few people come by (unless invited over). I told him that once I returned from my trip to Chicago we would see about maybe instituting an allowance.

I wrote a post on my personal site asking for feedback on the whole allowance topic. As young children, my husband...

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