I honestly can’t recall what I used to do on the computer prior to Facebook.  As best as I can remember, I spent my days surfing Craigslist and changing my profile song on MySpace.  Speaking of which, I should really delete that account.  Anyhow, Facebook happened, and now I spend a little time each day checking in to see what my friends are up to or looking up old friends and classmates [...]

I ran across a great blog called The Coffee Cottage last night and howled… total belly laughing… at her post about dickeys.  This woman is pretty funny.  Please- stop what you are doing and read about her Aunt Reba’s fashion tip and her 8th grade dickey disaster.  It will make everything right with the world for just a moment. 

I’ve been reading Things to Do with Toddlers and Twos by Karen Miller and came across a list of Practices to Avoid that is mostly directed towards teachers and child care workers, but worthy of sharing to mommies as well.  Matter of fact, it’s a good rule of thumb when applied to all human beings.  If we all adapted these concepts to our respective age groups and applied them to the [...]

Simple lesson of the day: Find joy in what you can offer others instead of just what they can offer you.

For anyone who knows me, you know that I allegedly love to talk on the phone.  On Friday, January 27, 2012, my world crashed and crumbled right before my eyes.  My BlackBerry?  Totally, irrepairably dead.  To make things worse, I can still see the screen.  This means that I can see the notification that I have text messages… four of them… yet I can’t open them to read.    I checked out my bank account [...]

My husband and I bought a singing potty for our son and recently set it in his bathroom so he can get acclimated to the idea of a potty.  We aren’t actively potty training him yet, but soon.  Anyhow, when I walked into his restroom to start his bath water the other day, my foot clipped the side of the song potty; thus commencing a series of loud, overly cheerful [...]

Working Moms: When do you usually get home in the evening, and what time does your child/do your kids go to bed?  What types of things do you do during the week to make sure to get quality time with them?  I get home (exhausted) at 6pm.  My son’s ready for bed by 7:30 or 8:00. Am I the only mom around here that needs a chef and a housekeeper? [...]

Ladies, young, old and in-between, how would you react if you saw someone spray painting graffiti on the side of a church?  It wouldn’t be any more soothing to you if they put the spray paint down and then lit the church on fire, would it?  Or what if they tried to sell drugs on the church’s front door step?  I wouldn’t stand for it.  I may not confront a criminal, [...]

It’s the end of the year. Have you gotten your annual physical yet? Pap smears and mammograms save lives!

My son is 18 months old.  Sidenote- pre-mommyhood, I used to hate when moms referred to their 12+ month-old babies as, for example, 18 months old… 34 months old, etc.  As they would continue on with the point of their story, I’d politely try to silently divide their given number by 12 to figure out the actual age of their child in years.  Meanwhile, I wouldn’t hear a thing they were telling me.  Seriously– [...]

Good morning to you!  Good morning to you!  We’re all in our places with sunshiny faces, and this is the way  we’ll start our new day! My dad used to sing that to me in the mornings when he came upstairs to wake me up. It always started my day off in a good mood.  When I wake Parker up in the mornings, I always say, “Good morning, Sunshine” and sing a song that I [...]

I read a passage recently that spoke the meaning of motherhood to me:  I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.  (Matthew 25:35-36) A mother’s [...]

Right in front of my eyes, my son dusted off his walking shoes a few weeks ago and decided to walk around the house for the first time!  He stood with such confidence and simply took off as if he had done the same thing every day since he was born.  This is one of many things that, along the way, I will clap and cry about at the same time.  My newborn baby [...]

For anyone with a family, you have probably learned that a little goes a long way in a lot of scenarios. With everything from food to toys and from words to actions, a lot of times you can stretch a little of one of those into quite the accomplishment. Extra people for dinner?  Whip up a salad, pull out some bread, and a casserole for six can feed eight or 10.  Extra wait [...]

As I sit here and scan through the latest postings on the website, I am trying to think of something clever to write about. Something that will be worth your time to read and something that will warm your heart and bring a smile to your face. However, I have this topic that won’t leave my mind– that I have the feeling someone out there is going to need to [...]

Just as the nature of business has a comparison trap, parenting does as well.  I was reminded of this last week as my husband and I weaned our 15-month-old from the bottle. While spending time with my friends and their children, I found myself getting a little jealous because my son’s peers (same age or even younger) did so well with cups.  Meanwhile, my son was the only one that [...]

I have all sorts of books lying around the house… and then I have a Kindle stocked up with more books.  I love to choose one depending on my mood and read a quick chapter here and there.  Tonight, I picked up Chicken Soup for the Working Mom’s Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Patty Aubery.  I read the first few stories about moms who work for a [...]

“Hindsight is 20/20” is a saying you will probably hear me say if you spend enough time with me. I think that the phrase “You never know what you have until you lose it” is another good one. Do you ever feel that way? I think that it is absolutely amazing how we sometimes go years without knowing why something happens, but that eventually all things will be made clear [...]

Please accept my mommy pass this morning.  I am haulting production until this evening in order to enjoy a sweet one-year-old that’s helping out at the office today.  So far, he has ignored every single one of the toys I brought, but he is quite amazed… amazed… with the phone cords, electrical outlets, large paper cutter (you know… the huge, slicing guillotine-looking device) and the trash bag in the trash can.  I should seize the moment [...]

Save Pray Smile is proud to introduce the most recent addition to our contributing authors, Erin!  Get to know her on our Meet the SPS Contributors page and please provide her with a warm welcome via comments to her posts on our Mommy Moments and Inspirations page.  Welcome to the gang, Erin.  We appreciate you! Heather, Sarah and Royale

Have you ever taken the time to think about how our circumstances shape not only how we respond to things, the decisions we make and how we spend our time; but also who we really are deep inside.  It is said that character is who we are when no one is looking.  So how about the idea that our circumstances shape our character?  Have you heard the saying, “when you have lemons, [...]

Okay.  So how many of you have gotten that phone call where plans fall together quickly and suddenly a friend is coming over for a playdate in an hour, last minute dinner plans are made and you’re having company TONIGHT, or your husband announces that his friend is coming to your house to pick him up for their round of golf in 20 minutes? You look around and see that [...]

Please read the following in your best toddler whiney voice… IIII Dooon’t Feeeeeel Goooood [insert a bunch of hacking and coughing here].  I have a cold [hack... sniffle... cough].  I can’t stop coughing [cough... hack].  I think I might be running a fever. I am in that place where I am not sick enough to call Super Husband.  In other words, I am not bleeding severely, I haven’t lost an appendage and I’m not dead.  Therefore, I can’t [...]

Recently, my husband  and I had dinner with another couple who had twins a couple of months ago. We all got babysitters (aka the Grandparents [wink]) and went out child-free for a few hours. My friend and I were discussing her new part-time work schedule and how she felt about it. She mentioned that being home with the boys sometimes feels very isolating and wondered how I manage to stay at home [...]

Super Husband has a new job, which involves some travel. This week, he happened to be gone over trash day.  It is normally his “job” to take the trash cans out to the street. I never think about it because it just always happens. I continued not to think about it until this morning when I heard the garbage truck heading up my street. I was practically catatonic since Andrew had [...]