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You are here: Home / Archives for Parenting Is Hard Enough

Musings From A Sleep Dictator

October 14, 2015 By Christine Leave a Comment

I am a member of the Today Show’s Parenting team (I don’t want to brag buuuuuuuuut, I’m a TOP CONTRIBUTOR, thankyouverymuch) and this month, they challenged us to discuss a topic near and dear to my heart:  Sleep Training.  Specifically, they asked us to give tips from our journey to a good night’s sleep.  Because […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way, The Keeper On Today! Tagged With: napping, sleep, sleep deprivation

Mother-In-Law, My Friend

October 11, 2015 By Christine 3 Comments

When a group of women get together, inevitably, complaints will start flying. They will lament about their thighs, crow’s feet and grey hair. They will bitch about toddlers who refuse to use the potty and teenagers who roll their eyes. They will go on and on about husbands who can’t get dishes into the dishwasher […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way, Uncategorized Tagged With: friends, mother-in-law, mothers

The Girl Behind The Make Up

September 30, 2015 By Christine Leave a Comment

“Mommy, why are you putting that brown stuff on your face?” The question comes from Fruit Loop #2 as she sits on the counter of the bathroom, watching me get ready for an evening out with Hubby. I am applying foundation to the lines, wrinkles, and blemishes to my forty-year-old face. I am expertly coloring in […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way Tagged With: Make Up

Come On, Get Happy

September 3, 2015 By Christine 1 Comment

This month, the Today Parenting Team challenged me to write about what makes me happy as a mother and to define the strategies I use daily to find every day joy in the chaos of parenthood.  As I thought about this topic and ruminated on what really makes me truly happy, I realized that, for […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way, The Keeper On Today! Tagged With: finding joy, happy

Slow Parenting

September 2, 2015 By Christine 4 Comments

A few months ago, I posted a photo on my Instagram account of Fruit Loop #2 sitting by a river, skipping rocks. It was a beautiful evening, Spring at it’s finest; complete with a setting sun shading the sky a lovely shade of amber. As we sat by that river, after having taken a three-mile […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way Tagged With: say yes to family time, slow parenting

Gin and Tonic With A Twist of LYME Disease

July 31, 2015 By Christine 3 Comments

When school got out for the summer, I had visions of beaches, long summer nights around the fire pit with friends and road trips.  I was eager for the slower paced days and catching up on all the books collecting dust on my night stand.  No lunches to pack, no homework to check, no screaming […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way, The Keeper Is A Nurse Tagged With: it will be okay, Lyme Disease

School Daze: 13 Tips For Back To School Success (The Keeper On Today)

July 26, 2015 By Christine Leave a Comment

As many of you know, I am a regular contributor to the Today Show’s Parenting Community.  This month, the Featured Challenge is “Back To School Advice, Pay It Forward Style”.  I was asked to write a piece with advice for moms and dads with children younger than mine.  Here’s the piece, as it appears on […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way, The Keeper On Today!

I Miss The Noise and It’s Too Quiet

July 22, 2015 By Christine 15 Comments

Today, when our eyes met in the aisle, my heart ached. I sighed to myself and realized I miss you. Well, not the actual you because, until today, we’ve never met. I miss the you that you are right now. The you that I am no longer. As you pushed your red cart containing your […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way, The Keeper On The Mid Tagged With: quiet, the mid

I Talk Early And Often To The Fruit Loops About Alcohol

July 7, 2015 By Christine 4 Comments

I’m just going to say it out loud:  I’m a good time at parties. A gooooood time, I tell you, and my friends will all willingly recount at least three stories that involve me, a party and adult beverages. Okay, probably five stories each and those who attended my 40th birthday party last Fall all […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way, The Keeper Is A Guest!, The Keeper News

“Wine Not Time!”

June 27, 2015 By Christine 9 Comments

Have you ever committed a crime?  Like an *actual* one?  Wait.  Don’t answer that because I think plausible deniability would work in my favor if anyone ever asked me about your answer.  I am pleased to say that I haven’t been in the Big House…yet.  But I can imagine a scenario in which I would […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way Tagged With: wine

Enjoying Summer Time Can Be Easy….Sort Of

June 22, 2015 By Christine 5 Comments

Summer is here. We are a week into summer vacation and already, I’ve heard the words “I’m bored” and “There’s nothing to doooooooo” and, my personal favorite, “There’s nothing gooooood to eat in the pantry”. Yep. Summer with kids is AWESOME.  And HARD. It’s hard to keep them busy, it’s hard to find time to […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way, The Keeper On Today!, Uncategorized Tagged With: summer fun, surviving summer

Tales of A Fifth Grade Nothing

June 15, 2015 By Christine 9 Comments

While on a recent trip to the beach,  I observed Fruit Loop #2 happily playing with her best friend.  They spent an entire day building sand castles, jumping waves and doing all the things you do with your bestie when you are nine years old.  They told secrets, they giggled, they wore their bathing suits […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, People Who Suck Tagged With: incredible hulk, mean girls

Home Sweet Home

May 18, 2015 By Christine 4 Comments

Hubby and I, on the general, don’t argue much. Strike that. We argue all the time. We have tiffs, we have eye rolling, we have snippy moments where I call him a jackass and he gets annoyed. Occasionally, there’s even a door slam. But, for the most part, we don’t argue so vociferously that one […]

Filed Under: Behind Closed Doors, Parenting Is Hard Enough Tagged With: arguments, new house, sleep deprivation

Just Sleep, Dammit!

April 7, 2015 By Christine 7 Comments

There are few things that will drive a new mother over the edge like sleep deprivation. The days where you wake up exhausted, nauseous and convinced you will never sleep again in the history of ever drive yoga pants clad moms all across this nation to the brink of insanity. Everyone always seems to have […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way Tagged With: cry it out, sleep deprivation

Thanks for the Mammories

April 3, 2015 By Christine 6 Comments

I am a graduate of the University of “My Boobs Fed A Human” and hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Breast Feeding.  In order to graduate, I had to enroll in classes such as “Breast Pump 101” and “Your Breast and You:  How Not To Get Eaten Alive By A Small Human”.  There were all nighters […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way Tagged With: hell, mastitis

Gossip Girls

March 16, 2015 By Christine 2 Comments

As you walk into the cafeteria, your stomach lurches a little.  You look around at the groups of girls and a familiar fear fills your stomach. “Will the cool girls let me sit with them today?” You scan the room and see girls chatting, laughing and looking over at you as you walk in the […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way, People Who Suck Tagged With: mom bullies suck

What I Don’t Remember….

March 10, 2015 By Christine 34 Comments

Is anyone else feeling the stress of being the World’s Most Perfect Mom EVUUUR? Is anyone else looking at The Pinterest wondering who the heck has the time to make crafts, perfect crockpot meals and put outfits together that would make Polyvore swoon? Does anyone else look around them and see moms who spend more […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way Tagged With: parenting, what the hell

All The Remembering

March 5, 2015 By Christine 3 Comments

Last night at dinner and on the eve of our 8th snow day off from school this year, I was lamenting about the number of days that the Fruit Loops have been underfoot, bored, and full of bicker. The number of days that I’ve been forced to reschedule appointments and become Julie the Cruise Director […]

Filed Under: Parenting Is Hard Enough, Parenting My Way Tagged With: remembering is hard

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