As we followed the hostess toward our table on the restaurant’s outdoor patio, she turned back to ask the girls if they would like to color. They enthusiastically replied, “Yes! Thank you!" – always appreciative of an opportunity to draw while waiting for their food....
This week, Ella celebrated her birthday and requested waffles for breakfast. Usually, I make waffles from my Nana’s recipe, which involves putting a few simple ingredients in a blender. But I wanted Ella’s birthday waffles to be extra special. So the night before, I Googled...
The Capitol Rotunda is a large, domed room in the center of the U.S. Capitol. Beneath this room, there is a cornerstone laid by President George Washington in 1793. The iconic white dome was completed in 1863, right in the middle of the Civil War....
My daughter had an imaginary friend named Stewie when she was younger. Stewie was bald, drove a purple car...
What were things like before? What has changed? These questions are often helpful when working with someone trying to maintain behavior change. Looking back in time can help a person reflect on the positives of what they have achieved and the benefits of change. What defines life before...
I was on hold with an artificial Christmas tree company, listening to festive hold music while not feeling festive at all. Their glossy catalog had arrived in the mail in early November and I decided to splurge on a giant Christmas tree for our living...
I had been wondering about the effect of screen time on childhood development. Because of distance learning, my girls have shifted from using screens rarely to hours every day.I had emailed one of my psychologist friends the question, “Isn’t all this screen time bad for...
Every day now, the girls excitedly check our mailbox for holiday cards. They count the envelopes, exclaim the number of cards that arrived, then tear them open. They get out a tape dispenser and carefully line the cards along the side of our kitchen counter....
The girls were playing school with their stuffed animals. As the teachers, the girls stood next to their chalkboard easel and led a math lesson. Their students were arranged in a semicircle, and each stuffed animal had a piece of paper and a crayon for...
"That's enough!” Ella exclaimed. Emma was adding drops of vanilla extract to a bowl of cookie batter. Gently, Ella covered Emma's hand with her own and tipped the bottle of vanilla upward.It’s the secret to our family’s sugar cookie recipe – an extra bit of vanilla....