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I can’t believe I did it.  I swore I’d never succumb to the insane shopping frenzy that commences before dawn the day after Thanksgiving.  I’d been a snob, thinking myself too evolved to fall victim to the materialism that plagues us.  Not buying that?   Okay, so the truth is that even the lure of deep discounts couldn’t ...

Last week I got a call from Jami Kunzer, reporter and Mom-blogger for the Northwest Herald and Kane County Chronicle.  She'd read my last post about my trip to Grant park with Noah on election night and wanted to hear more.  Her newspaper column featuring our adventure on election night was published November 9th and her blog post ...

Oh, what a night, and Noah and I were there!  Along with an estimated quarter-million other Obama fans who squeezed into Grant Park last night, we heard Obama make his victory speech in person.  I still can’t believe he won, let alone that we were there to see it happen – to feel it happen, alongside so many.    I’m ...

Hold onto your hats, folks, it’s parent – teacher conference time again!  Parent-teacher conferences can be daunting, especially for the uninitiated.  You glow with pride one moment, and then find yourself sweating about ‘areas needing improvement’ the next, all while perched on an itty-bitty chair that makes your knees lock up and your ...

My kids think I’m a ninny.  If you ask Noah and Holly, I’ve missed the boat and the last big wave, and definitely am not as cool as so-and-so’s Mom.  After all, she lets her children have internet access in their bedrooms and I don’t.  Well, phooey, I’ll just have to deal with being un-cool.  I may be not be as tech-savvy as ...

This morning I turned on the television before I even got out of bed and propped myself up on my squishy pillow, ready for my Waltons fix with the kids before school.  Before they ran in to snuggle with me under the covers I channel-surfed to make sure the sky wasn’t planning to fall, like I always do.  (‘Cause if it’s gonna fall, see, I ...

My son was hit by a car as he ran into the street after a tennis ball.    My worst nightmare.   The car, driven by a 91-year-old neighbor, hit his left side.  I’d been standing 30 feet away with the cable guy staring up at a phone wire on one side of our new house, and my husband was nearby vacuuming out the car near where ...

Noah’s first encounter with a bully happened while he was still in diapers, when another two-year-old shoved him off his sunny perch atop a little-tykes picnic table.  A stunned Noah retaliated with a toothy bite to the other boy’s leg and a stunned me fretted that my son was being bullied by a baby-thug – and becoming one himself.  ...

Wild night last night, huh?  As for my clan, we hunkered down in our new home’s cobwebby old basement with a game of Boggle, our kitty, a cell phone, flashlight, crank-powered emergency radio and a thermos of water.  Oh, and some M&M’s.    Best not forget the instant joy whilst dodging tornadoes and lightening ...

We were surrounded by boxes.  Some had already seen active duty in more than their fair share of moves and sported several layers of packing tape, badly tattered corners and barely viable seams.  Those travel-weary boxes looked like we felt, as we contemplated the rigors of yet another move.          ...