1. If your child is a raging maniac for no reason chances are they will wake up in the middle of the night vomiting with 103 degree fever.
    2. Always put a bowl next to your child's bed if they say their stomach hurts before bedtime
    3. The first 6 weeks of school are always terrible. It will get better
    4. The last 4 weeks of school are always terrible. Deal with it.
    5. Sleep-away camp is good for kids and even better for your marriage
    6. Parenting is all about follow through - make good on promises and consequences or you will lose all credibility.
    7. Don't rush your kid. There's plenty of time to see plays and movies and read books that they aren't quite ready to emotionally process yet. Just because something has music in it doesn't mean it's kid-friendly. Glee is not a kid's show.
    8. Don't underestimate your kid. Sometimes a child is ready for something new. Don't let your own fears keep them back. Unless it's horseback riding. Or swimming in the ocean. Yeah, I'm still
    Read More »

  • If there's something I can never be accused of, it's not thinking. No, I'm about as introspective as they come. And when I was taught that quote about an unexamined life not being worth living, I finally found validation for my way of life. With that in mind, 2010 was a big year for me, a year of growth, of life changing events, of countless opportunities, of healing and heartache.

    These are the top 10 posts of 2010 on Suddenly Single Journey, shared in chronological order:

    1. The Broken Road... A post that gives some of the back story of our relationship. It was leading up to the next two posts.

    2. First Comes Love... In which I explained how scary love was for him, how difficult it was for him to accept, admit, and recognize those feelings.

    3. It was the perfect proposal... Yeah, he popped the question on Valentine's Day.

    4. Friday at Yahoo! I told all about the day I spent on the Yahoo! campus with the Mother Board. It was an amazing experience, for which I am truly grateful.

    Read More »

  • Me before the Variety Power of Women Event
    This month's Yahoo Mother Board topic is all about top tens, inspired by Yahoo!'s list of top ten searches.

    Top Searches on Yahoo! in 2010
    1. BP oil spill
    2. World Cup
    3. Miley Cyrus
    4. Kim Kardashian
    5. Lady Gaga
    6. iPhone
    7. Megan Fox
    8. Justin Bieber
    9. American Idol
    10. Britney Spears

    Ugh, what does THAT say about us as a society? I've decided to post my top 10 posts of the year, as determined by my traffic to the posts. I've skipped the about pages and main page, which get a lot of traffic. Here goes!

    1. Tribute to Mr. Conrad Beaulieu - sadly, this was my most viewed post. Rest in peace Mr. Beaulieu.
    2. The Mom Cliques - this post resonated with so many moms. And, I couldn't believe the searches that led people to this site - "neighborhood cliques", "stay at home mom cliques", "kindergarten cliques", "PTA clique", etc. Obviously this is a hot topic.
    3. Red Carpet
    Read More »

  • This month I had the fortunate opportunity to participate in Yahoo's Ripple of Kindness Program. I was given $100 to spread kindness this holiday season and hopefully encourage a ripple effect. I was very honored and excited to participate in this program, although I found it hard to decide how best to utilize this generous gift.

    Various ideas went through my head like buying a cup of coffee for a stranger at Starbucks, purchasing stamps for the next patron in line at the post office, donating a warm coat to a local clothing drive, providing a microfinance loan through Kiva or buying Target gift cards and randomly passing them out to people as the entered the store, but I couldn't decide.

    I grappled with trying to do something for the sake of being kind and doing something that would really help a person in need. Would buying a cup of coffee for a stranger in my affluent suburb really make a difference? Or would giving money to a charitable organization be a better way to

    Read More »

  • About a month ago I signed up to participate in Yahoo's "How Good Grows" Ripples of Kindness program and I received $100 to get me started. Since that check arrived I've gone through dozens of scenarios in my head. I considered paying for a stranger's groceries, buying books for my grandmother's former nursing home and loading up on toys to donate to a local children's hospital.

    Then it dawned on me that I truly wanted to use the money to help people in need, so I was about to pack up the boys and head to Costco to purchase as much food as $100 could buy to donate to our local food bank, The Community Food Bank of New Jersey (full disclosure--I work for the public relations agency that represents the Food Bank). Before heading out the door I check the website to find the nearest drop-off location when I read this:

    "For every dollar of our operating budget, the Community Food Bank of New Jersey is able to distribute $9.59 worth of food and groceries."

    Wait just one minute--so my $100

    Read More »

  • One of the most difficult elements of teaching children about kindness and gratitude is the part where you teach them about being kind for kindness' sake.

    Especially for the little ones, when kids do something nice, they want the world to know. When my son gives his sister the last cookie, when my daughter helps a classmate tie a shoe or fix a ponytail, when my youngest lets our dog back in without me asking, they expect recognition.

    They want their kindness sung from the mountain tops--for their teachers and parents and friends and God and Santa and all of the big guys to give them a pat on the back for it. They want the Special Plate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they expect more gems in their jars.

    I knew I'd have opportunities this holiday season for my three kiddos to experience giving first-hand. We'd make gifts and present them to grandparents and aunts and uncles . We'd buy gifts for a needy family, wrap them, and send them away. We would spend one

    Read More »

  • 5 Random Acts of Kindness

    By | Yahoo Motherboard – Sun, Dec 19, 2010 6:51 PM EST




    Kindness, also known by its aliases Grace, Benevolence, Selflessness, Friendliness, Compassion, is something we take for granted. We expect it more than we bestow it.


    We teach Kindness to our children through lectures and rants and reactive examples that stem from plugging up a playdate gone bad. There are tomes about how to talk to your children about gentleness and respect. Teaching kindness tends to involve an awful lot of talking and not that much doing. As a mom, I find myself talking about kindness more than actually demonstrating it. Kindness is often more a concept than a true living example.

    Kindness comes in many colors. Helping someone stow a bag in the overheard compartment (a personal favorite since I am only five feet tall). Passing a supremo parking spot to let the car behind you have it. Writing a hand written thank you note to a teacher, barista, mailman, or anyone who makes you smile a little brighter and skip a little higher. Kindness must not cost lots

    Read More »

  • Yahoo! recently published their Top Ten Searches of 2010 and I thought you all needed to see them:

    Top Searches on Yahoo! in 2010

    1. BP oil spill
    
2. World Cup
    
3. Miley Cyrus 

    4. Kim Kardashian
    
5. Lady Gaga
    
6. iPhone
    
7. Megan Fox
    
8. Justin Bieber

    9. American Idol

    10. Britney Spears 


    Seven were celebrities (or celebrity-related), one was sports-related, one was tech, and one was news. I guess I'm pleased to see that the top item was news; the BP oil spill was an incredibly important and horrible event, and it went on for so long, I'm not surprised it was the number one search this year.

    Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber I get - she's fascinating and wears perfectly outlandish clothes, and he's the IT boy of the year. But I don't get the Kardashians at all.

    And Megan Fox? No offense, but seriously? Britney Spears? I would have thought we were done with her.

    Yahoo's list has made me feel completely out of touch.

    Read More »

  • A Ripple of Kindness Brings Books

    By | Yahoo Motherboard – Thu, Dec 16, 2010 7:36 PM EST

    I do know the difference between a random act of kindness and a random act of charity.

    Paying for coffee for everyone in line at Starbucks is a random act of kindness.
    Refilling the doggie water bowls that dot the sidewalk of my local downtown is a random act of kindness.
    Helping to carry someone's grocery bags to the car is a random act of kindness.

    It's all good.


    As part of the Yahoo! Motherboard, I'd been given $100 in seed money from Yahoo! to begin my ripple of kindness. So I sat there at Starbucks, clutching a stack of How Good Grows cards to give to recipients of my kindness. I looked at each customer as they walked up and wondered when I should begin. Her! I'll pay for her! Him! I'll pay for him. And her! And them!

    It would have been so easy - and so much fun - to start ripples of kindness right there in that Starbucks line, but my thoughts kept turning to the shy little girl in my son's 1st grade class.

    I wanted to give her the gift of reading.

    She's quite a bit older

    Read More »

  • Random acts of kindness occur all the time - but I think for most of us, they're rare. That's why I loved the concept of Yahoo!'s Ripples of Kindness campaign. It's kind of an experiment - to see if doing a kind thing for a stranger will move others to pay it forward and cause a -- well, a ripple.

    And Yahoo! helped start the ripples by providing several members of the Motherboard with some seed money: $100 to use however we wanted. The only instruction was to be creative.

    And my colleagues put it to good use. If you look at the different entries on the Ripples of Kindness page, you'll see wonderful tales of buying blankets for homeless strangers, paying for commuters' morning coffee, giving books to children whose families could not afford them.

    I cashed my Yahoo! check and vowed to do something similar; perhaps I would hang out at my local Starbucks after school drop off and buy lattes for everyone in line behind me. Or maybe I could follow my daughter to the school with a box full

    Read More »

Pagination

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
(142 Stories)

Food »

The Thread »