{find more Top Ten Tuesday posts at ohamanda.com} I once met a couple on their 50th wedding anniversary, and when I asked them how the years had been, the wife told me:  “I never once considered divorcing my husband.  I thought about killing him a few times, though…”. (true story!)  On April 16th, my husband [...]

Tomorrow morning I hop a flight – all by myself! – to visit with my family in California for a week.  Tables will be turned as my husband (who travels A LOT for work) holds down the fort, or as I call it, “The Looney Bin.”  I’ve left him a detailed calendar of activities, lots [...]

I very often feel at the center of these tight concentric circles of need.  The closest circle in orbit around me contains the toddler and the puppy, just because they both need such constant, tireless care.  Then would likely be my teen and pre-teen daughters, next my 8yo son, followed by my husband.  Somewhere overlapping each [...]

Can’t help but love a man who loves his kids. Aren’t they just too delicious!? Tweet This Post

The other night I started a book by Shannon Hale called The Actor and the Housewife.  I have read and adored many of Hale’s other novels:  The Goose Girl, Princess Academy, Austenland.  But this may be one time I actually put down a book of hers before I’ve invested even 100 pages. The story has [...]

I rarely – RARELY – write about pop culture on my blog.  It’s true that I’m a nut for reality shows and I watch entirely too much television, but I don’t usually care enough about water-cooler topics to spend some font on them here. Tonight, though, after watching the interview with Kate Gosselin on TLC, I have [...]

My family has a serious problem with pronouns. “Hunny, have we paid that bill yet?” “Mom, did we remember to pick up my hair stuff at the store?” “Wow, we really need to do the dishes!” No one is fooling me!  Every time they address me like this, what they really mean to say is [...]

When we lived in Oregon, the only reference I ever made to “June Bug” was a nickname given to my youngest daughter (whose middle name is June).  Here in the Houston area, it’s a whole different story!  As I sit here typing, the June Bugs are tapping a crazy rhythm against my front door and windows. Lately, [...]

Shiloah Baker with the lovely site The Homemaking Cottage recently interviewed me for her “Mothers of Large Families” series.  It was fun to talk about my family and share more of our behind-the-scenes life!  If you would like to learn more about us, I invite you to READ THE ARTICLE HERE. Tweet This Post

Recently my husband and I were discussing with a friend the different travel requirements of my husband’s job. Briefly, my husband works for a major auto company (think 2 letters…but not the one going bankrupt) as a liason between their corporate credit division and all the dealerships in SE Texas.  He spends a lot of [...]