Murphy's Laws for Moms

I love to give gifts.  I love the happiness that is put in a person's life when they open a present to find something that they have wanted, needed or asked for.  I love seeing the smiles that come from opening gifts.  It's a joyous occasion to see. I am trying to teach my children the joy of giving gifts.  They don't get it. My children help me purchase the gifts for our family and friends.  They throw temper tantrums of the nuclear proportion when they don't also get to purchase a "gift" for themselves - just ask my pastor's daughter who was witness to one (joy for me! ...sarcasm). My children help wrap the gifts.  They then help open them whether asked for assistance or not. My children get excited about picking out their own gifts to give to someone else, then ask to "protect" that gift for the gift receiver...as if I don't really get that they just want to have the gift back for themselves.  This is evidenced by Baby Owl and Pete...

It's that time of year...back to school!  I'm not sure who is more excited about this: the kids or me.  But, the reality of it is, the preparation for back to school isn't always easy or fun - and my kids aren't even in elementary school yet! Both my kids will be in preschool this coming school year, and we're trying out a different school with the Pre-K child, so I'm learning about the nature of two different types of preschools.  One is a nationwide chain and the other a smaller, faith-based school.  Both have very high reputations within our community, but there's a big difference...cost and preparation. The nationwide chain school - while locally owned - has a much higher tuition rate and doesn't require any parental volunteer work, fundraising or purchase of communal/student supplies.  The other local school has much what appears to be an average tuition rate (amongst other local preschools) but requires 10 hours of parental volunteer work throu...

My family recently returned from a short stay on the Central Oregon coast .  This was our first "true" vacation with kids - meaning, we didn't stay with family and the entire trip was geared around spending time as a family doing meaningful activities. We began our stay by stopping at the Tanger Outlet Mall in Lincoln City .  Yes, I realize this isn't really a kid-friendly activity - and especially not a toddler-friendly activity - but the deals at the Columbia Outlet here cannot be passed up.  We left with new lightweight jackets which were perfect for the chilly coastal weather, athletic shoes and sandals, lightweight fleeces, and more.  We also stopped at the Gymboree Outlet , but I don't see much difference between this and their regular stores. We chose to stay in a cottage at the Overleaf Lodge in Yachats .  Reservations for the cottages have to be made over the phone and there was a bit of a miscommunication when this was done.  I thought I ha...

One of the most common mistakes I have made as a mother is to assume I am smarter than my children.  Yes, I know that intellectually I am much smarter.  However, my creative intelligence and my persistence are often lagging behind when compared with that of the minds of my toddlers.  Perhaps it's the fact that I'm worn out.  Maybe it's my children joining forces against me.  It might be that my theories on child rearing are just that: theories yet to be proven.  Or, it could be that my children have been abducted by alien life forms and given brains which are developing at such an advanced level that there's no possible way my simple human mind can keep up. I'm going with the latter.  That concept would make the most sense. How else am I to explain the fact that every single childproofing item that I was told I needed and installed in my home has been bypassed by my oldest child not yet of the whole hand age range and then taught to bypass to my yo...