By Chrissy Bernal One of my daughters has a friend whom I have often seen walking along the streets of our neighborhood by herself and at various times of the day/night. This same friend required a ride, during the school year, to various functions as her parents always seemed to be unavailable. Many times, we would drop her off after a function and see that both parents’ cars were in read more

By Sara Parker Our sons were 2 and 3 years old when it started. I would look in the rearview mirror and wonder who would fill the next seat in our car. I’d set the table and imagine another little one in one of the empty chairs. At night I would lie awake, scheming about which room would be used for our next child, and what colors I would paint it if the new member of our family happened read more

Courtesy of Cy-Fair Hospital A distance of more than 7,900 miles and a time difference of nine-and a-half hours did not keep Lance Corporal Preston Luke Jones from seeing the birth of his son, Preston Myles Jones, on April 23, 2011. That was the day his wife, Sarah, delivered their first child at 9:18 a.m., Houston time, at Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center Hospital. An Unexpected read more

By Shara Lawrence-Weiss Today is Independence Day in the United States. Learn more about Independence Day and explain the history to children: Kaboose.com. Hang and Seek Game: A fun way to teach word match up and reading! Pledge: Help your child learn the Pledge of Allegiance. July 4thMaze Older children may enjoy a little maze action. July read more

By Stacey Gliniewicz Do you have a parent that is approaching senior citizen status and realizing that they are not getting any younger, hence starting to live and enjoy life even more than they did as a young adult? Only now, that parent is living life with a bucket list? My husband and I became aware of this bucket list belonging to my Mother, affectionately called Princess Grandma by read more

By Diana Saufley I have had so many friends tell me that they have a hard time going to sleep or staying asleep. I think it is in part due to the pace of life that we now feel the need to keep in step. There are many other causes, some medical, some environmental and some the choice of our décor and surroundings. Our bedrooms are where we spend a large portion of our lives both asleep read more

By Sara Parker As June begins to melt into July, I have come to three realizations: It is about to get EVEN hotter. I find that difficult to comprehend. So does my six-year-old, who just the other day asked how many more degrees it would have to get in order for us to “burn up.” Summer is almost half over.   My math is off, I know. But really, read more

Courtesy of Cy-Fair Hospital The new food plate recently unveiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is designed to help Americans eat a healthier, balanced diet with an emphasis on vegetables and fruits. This new visual nutrition guide uses colorful, easy-to-read graphics with proportionate sections for fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and a separate segment for dairy. The read more

By Chrissy Bernal I’ve gone back in forth on my thoughts on snooping on kids. I was a very well behaved teen compared to most and rarely got into trouble. My parents were very strict and snooped on a regular basis—including reading my journal. However, I didn’t realize they were snooping until well into my college years when they were still snooping. My thoughts were always that read more

By Stacey Gliniewicz Several months ago, I wrote an article about how to container garden. I would like to mention a couple of benefits to container gardening, like that fact that you know where your fruits and vegetables are coming from, pesticides or chemicals are highly controlled, and it eases the grocery bill. Let’s take a closer look at the controlled pesticides and chemicals on our read more

By Sara Parker Silence. With these four… I don’t get a whole lot of this… And I’m not talking about sleep (although, I certainly do not get enough of that either)… I’m talking about SILENCE. Blessed, beautiful, read-a-book-without-interruption, take-a-shower-without-someone-banging-on-the-door, listen-to-the-radio-and-sing-along-to-an-entire-song kind of read more

Courtesy of Cy-Fair Hospital There are many unknowns when having a baby. How much will the baby weigh? Will it be a boy or a girl? Will the baby look more like the mother or father? If the expectant mother has been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, she may have even more questions. How will the condition affect my baby? Will the diabetes go away after the delivery? Will I develop read more

By Shara Lawrence-Weiss When I was growing up, most fathers were around. This is not the case today. When volunteering with young mothers one of the recurring themes I hear is, “My father wasn’t around.” In fact, I would say that 90% of the moms and dads I volunteer with grew up without a father and 10% without a mother. As Martina McBride sang, “No one there to show him the read more

By Stacey Gliniewicz I was recently asked a question inquiring if my husband’s ex-wife could attend his military retirement that is just over a month away, and one of the most important days aside from our wedding day in my husband’s life. He has served for 22 years and is looking forward to seeing many of his former coworkers from his journeys as an Airman. Our families will be present as read more

By Sara Parker A few days before returning from a recent family trip, I got a call from the friend who was caring for our animals while we were away. She broke the news that our dog had apparently done her business all over the game room upstairs. I told my friend not to worry about it—we’d take care of the mess when we came home. I assumed she was blowing things out of proportion. Our read more