August 2009

  • The Importance of Your Love Life

    By sarajean on 8/30/09 8:39pm
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    Between work, kids, carpool, cooking, cleaning and scheduling, most parents simply don’t have time for their love lives today. But the truth is that we don’t make time, isn’t it? Yes, it’s true that scheduling yet another thing to do feels tedious and overwhelming, but this is something we can do for ourselves—something that will make us feel better.

    Date nights or date days (since lunch menus and matinee movie prices are much cheaper!) are all the rage, and it’s never too late to date your partner. If you’re not married or you don’t have a partner, it might be a little more difficult to find someone you want to spend a little time with, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do it. On the contrary, everyone needs love and companionship, even those of us who have been burned.

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  • Parenting Tips They Never Tell You, Part 1

    By sarajean on 8/30/09 9:04am
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    Don’t let your newborn sleep on his belly. Don’t feed a baby under a year honey. Keep a newborn out of the sun. There is plenty of advice for new mothers and fathers out there, and plenty of people who think they know everything!

    But there are also a few little tidbits of information that are pretty much common sense, though you never really think about them. Here are a few things that I learned the hard way as a mom that I really wish that I had thought about before doing them.

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  • Take a Vacation with the Obamas

    By sarajean on 8/15/09 9:19am
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    If you missed out on this summer’s “no-fee” National Park visits, you still have a teeny, tiny window of opportunity today and tomorrow. And if you decide to pay a visit to your nearest national park, you’ll be doing the same thing the president is doing.

    This weekend, the Obama family is visiting the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park to support the park’s summer no-fee program. During their vacation, the president will be promoting both national parks vacations as well as health care reform.

    If there’s anything I’m grateful for today, it’s that I don’t have to make speeches when I’m on vacation!

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  • 10 Things to Do Before School Starts

    By sarajean on 8/8/09 3:45am
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    Summer’s end is rapidly approaching, and like every year there’s always things that we meant to do that somehow seemed to slip through the cracks. Instead of simply sighing and bumping these activities up to next summer, we can still try to fit them in—or at least, a few of them in. Here are 10 things to be sure to do before school begins this fall.

    10. Travel. If you meant to take a trip sometime but never got around to it, there is still time. You may not be able to book—or afford—a visit to Cancun, but you might be able to take a day trip to a neighboring county for a fair, special museum or other attractions. If even that is too much, why not spend a little money on an overnight stay in a local hotel? Order room service and rent a family movie, play in the hotel swimming pool, and wear white bath robes.

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  • School Supplies Shopping Time!

    By sarajean on 8/3/09 10:26pm
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    Whether you’re like Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, approaching the fall with fantasies about “bouquets of newly-sharpened pencils,” or you dread the pleading for the priciest backpack, locker shelf, lunchbox, and every other available item in the aisle, there’s no denying that the time for school shopping has arrived.

    From ten-cent paper deals to overly-bright character backpacks, everyone’s got some kind of sale going on. The question is, who has the best—and how can we save the most? Here are some tips for making the most out of your back-to-school buck.

    Re-use all that you can. Just because it’s a new year doesn’t mean that everything has to be new. If last year’s backpack, locker gear, or other supplies are still good, they are still useable.

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