Get Ready for the New School Year

The new school year might begin for your kids in August or early September. You probably are aware of the need for new school supplies, school appropriate clothing, and an established bedtime. Many parents forget about the less obvious things that come with a brand new school year. Here are a few to be aware of so you will be ready when they appear. Strong Emotions In general, children tend to experience a lot of strong emotions at the start of a brand new school year. While some kids will be excited to start school again, many will express frustration … Continue reading

Low-Income Texas Women Lack Access to Health Care

A Texas judge has officially denied Planned Parenthood’s request to be allowed to offer health services to low-income women in Texas through a state program. The result is that there are a lot of low-income women in Texas who now have no access to women’s health care. This is part of a long, long, story. This all started in February of 2012, when Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner, Tom Seuhs, signed a law that was designed to specifically exclude Planned Parenthood from receiving any of the funding that is earmarked for the Medicaid Women’s Health Program (WHP). At the … Continue reading

Are You Ready For Your Kids’ Winter Break?

With winter break just around the corner, home – based professional parents everywhere may be both excited about the opportunity to spend time with their children and anxious about whether they will be able to keep up with their workload while the kids are on break. Whether your kids are on break from day care, pre school, grade school, high school, or college, you probably want to spend more time with them than you normally have available during a typical work week. If at all possible, try to plan ahead so that you can lighten your workload during their vacation … Continue reading

Anger: It’s Not Worth It

I’ve been rather irritated with the world lately. It feels like there is never any justice. Bad people get away with things they shouldn’t. They constantly take advantage of others and get away with it. I’ve felt that way a lot with my ex lately. He walks all over me, and frankly I let him because I am so afraid of contention. I convince myself that one of these days I am going to stand up to him and say “no,” but when it comes down to it I usually give in anyways. Being taken advantage of isn’t very fun. … Continue reading

A Note From A Single Parent

Dating a single mom isn’t easy. There are many challenges as they are trying to balance their time between their children and with you. If you are dating a single mom, there are many things to keep in mind. If you are considering this venture, please read this beforehand, so you can gain some insight into what is going through a single mother’s mind as she begins dating you. Dear Potential Date, I am finally ready to get out into the dating world, but I am still a little frightened at this whole dating scene. I have been burned in … Continue reading

Oh The Ways That They Play

As your toddler grows, he or she can learn to play in different and more challenging ways. Teaching toddlers basic games like tag or hide and seek is a fun way to play together and help your toddler learn new things. The other day, I laughed so hard as I started teaching Dylan how to play hide and seek. First of all, it is so cute to hear him counting, even though the numbers are not quite in the right order. Also, since it takes time to learn how to play a new game, he was having a little trouble … Continue reading

Get Ready for Story@Home 2013!

Have you heard of the Story@Home conference? The very first one was held in March of 2012. It seems to have done well enough to become an annual event. Story@Home 2013 will happen in February of 2013. Are you going to attend? The Story@Home conference, as you may have guessed from the name, is all about story. The conference gives genealogists a lot of good information about how to incorporate family history into their genealogy research. The conference is going to be hosted by FamilySearch, one of the most popular genealogy websites. They hosted the first Story@Home conference. FamilySearch, as … Continue reading

Not Always Joined at the Hip

Jon and I started dating in college, and we were far from the only ones in our social circles to do so. Some of the others would make fun of us, giving us couples’ names, like the media does for dating celebrities (our name was Jangela). It never really bothered me, except for one potential interpretation: was there some truth in the fact that I didn’t do much without Jon? Looking back, I think that I had enough friends and enough things going on in my college life that were separate from my boyfriend. But I could see how it … Continue reading

Are You Ready for the Holiday Hysteria?

“Turducken,” “Festivus,” and now, “OctoNovemCember”. Let the holiday cra-zy begin. Oh, wait, it already has. In fact, seeing Target’s new Christmas commercial last night is nothing compared to seeing Santa stockings hanging next to Halloween candy in Wal-Mart on the day after the 4th of July. Okay, maybe it was July 9th. Regardless, mega-popular couponing website, RetailMeNot.com has come up with a new term for the holiday-inspired retail frenzy which seems to start earlier and earlier each year. The new trademarked catchphrase: “OctoNovemCember.” Get it? To help those who aren’t quite there yet, the company has created a matching mascot … Continue reading

Where to find Virtual Cemeteries

It isn’t always going to be possible for a genealogist to visit the graves of his or her ancestors in person. If you live far away from where they are buried, the travel expense might be more than your budget can handle. One option is to make use of the many virtual cemeteries that are online. It is free, and might provide the same genealogical information that you would seek at the actual cemetery. There are two popular websites that genealogists can use to locate an image of the grave of an ancestor. The same resources will allow you to … Continue reading