I used to participate in the Iron Craft Challenge over at Just Crafty Enough all the time, but then I got busy with the book and had no time for extra crafting, and then the book was done but I didn’t feel like making anything or wasn’t sure what to make. But this week it […]
Memories without Photographs
At the grocery store this morning, the Billy Joel song “For the Longest Time” came on over the PA, and I was immediately transported back almost two decades to the Key Club regional convention of April 1995. There was a talent show, and one of the performers was an all-boy acapella group called The Argyles, […]
Art is Everywhere
Over the weekend I was invited, along with a group of other bloggers, to tour a relatively new exhibit at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Called State of the Art, it’s a collection of 227 works of art from 102 artists from around the country who were chosen as the curators traveled 100,000 miles […]
Make an Easy Kid Craft Halloween Centerpiece
Through the years the girl has made a lot of great Halloween crafts at school. These are actually just a few of them. I love the yarn-wrapped mummy, of course, and the spider is pretty awesome, too (it’s made out of a Laughing Cow cheese container). Then there are all the pumpkins she painted last […]
In Which My Thoughts About Talking are Completely Validated
As part of my brand ambassadorship with Better Beginnings, I was recently invited to attend part of the conference of the Arkansas Early Childhood Association, a group of educators and parents whose focus is giving kids the best start possible. It was wonderful in a lot of ways — and I’ll be writing a lot […]
How to Raise a Smart Kid, Part Two: Talk a Lot
As a brand ambassador for Better Beginnings, I am being compensated for this post, but all opinions are my own. I told you the story about the girl telling her teacher that a butterfly doesn’t come from a cocoon but a chrysalis. And that I said she’s so smart in part because we read a […]
Sew an Easy Blanket out of Old Recieving Blankets
I don’t know how we ended up with so many receiving blankets when the girl was a baby. She was a preemie, so we swaddled her for a long time to help keep her warm, but the number of little cloth blankets we had still borders on the ridiculous. When she was too old to […]