Family

The Thanksgiving holiday can have restorative powers when celebrated right.

What if you could give your (newly) deaf child the choice? The chance to hear (again)? How would having access to sound impact his or her ability to communicate, develop and advance in our world? Read my personal story here.

Summer is the season I live for! The winter holidays are a close second, but nothing beats the sunshine and lazy days of the June – August months in my book. I was just telling a friend yesterday that because of all of those years my kids spent at full-time summer camp while I was working a 9-to-5, I have a soft spot when it comes to over-scheduling and overworking them during their summer vacations now that I am at home with them.

I am sharing this post as a J&J Social Influencer for Social Good. This post is part of the Global Moms Relay. Each time you ‘like’ or share a Global Moms Relay post via the social media icons or comment, Johnson & Johnson will donate $1 (per action) up to $300,000, to improve the health and wellbeing of moms and kids worldwide

If there’s a crafting place in town, you can bet that my family knows about it because Giggles is a craft fanatic! Our house is full of everything from beads to yarn and I’ve run out of room to house her creations. In fact, she even dressed up as "Pop Art" for Halloween. I’m telling you, the girl has a knack for the creative.

Since most of our family lives in Miami, we like to go there as much as possible for the holidays. Last year we went down for Christmas and stayed through the new year. It’s a ton of fun because between both my husband’s family and mine, there is no shortage of activities and events to attend and grandparents to spoil the kids.

Thirty-Seven years on this planet and I still, still, get giddy as the holiday season approaches! Since having kids, my excitement for this time of year has increased of course, because there is nothing like seeing the wonder of Christmas through their eyes.

I used to blame the iPad for running my kids’ childhoods and for my failure as a parent. Ok, not really, but really. When I was little, I was a bookworm – reading everything from The Babysitter’s Club to the Ramona series to Archie comics. And, I played outside! With friends! We used to ride our bikes and play wall ball and just hit the park and hang out on the swings. But for mine, it’s an entirely different story.

It’s not often that I’m crying tears of laughter or welling up at a Disney movie (well, other than Frozen). But last week I took the family to a screening of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. And it was great. I mean, really great. The story of course is a classic and the film definitely took liberties to update it and make it relevant to us now, and the acting was spot on.

This past Sunday was an unexpectedly gorgeous day and my eldest daughter and I wanted to figure out a way to seize it. I suggested we hit the local farmer’s market and she was ALL IN given her recent (but not subsiding) obsession with cooking. Her brother and sister decided to tag along and we all piled into the car and headed to the Market. It was lovely.

Our neighborhood pool closed for the winter today (*sniff*!) and the school supplies for Child No. 3’s first day of school are packed up and by the front door for orientation tomorrow (FINALLY). For all intents and purposes, summer is over.

Every time we’re in the car running errands, and Things 1,2 and 3 are chattering away: yelling, asking 5,000 questions, singing to some song on the radio that I feel so uncool for not knowing – I try to take a deep breath and instead of screaming at them to be quiet, remind myself that, soon enough, they won’t be saying a word.

About ten years ago, there used to be a show that came on television called ‘Radical Sabbatical.’ The premise was: "Human-interest stories focusing on successful people changing lifestyles and taking risks in pursuit of spiritual fulfillment and bygone dreams." Hubby and I couldn’t get enough of the show.

Ever since we were dating, my husband used to tease me about my "telephone voice." This was the voice that he said I "put on" when I got on the phone. I used to totally ignore him about that (still do), because I really and truly didn’t notice a change in the way I spoke during phone conversations.