Toddlers dump buckets. It’s in their DNA. Well, if not their DNA it is in their healthy development milestone checklist.

Buckets of toys.

Buckets of sand.

Buckets of dad’s nuts and bolt’s stash that he mistakenly left out the night before when fixing … a toy.

It’s a...

Dear Reader, I wrote this on September 4th, 2018. Reading through it nearly three years to the day, I take it as a much needed reminder that every season of our life is just that - and then there is another. Today, I still work really hard but I’m not strung out, and I control my time. To...

I just finished listening to Brene Brown's book, Daring Greatly, and promptly burst into tears.

I nearly made it too. But the last four minutes did me in.

You know when, back in the day, you went to a movie theatre and it was a tear jerker but you kept it together, so as not to blubber cry...

During the infancy of this blog I’m turning the vulnerability spotlight on myself so that you can really get to know me at the deepest level that a blog connection can create. To that end, I’ve been attic diving into old papers, photos, and VHS tapes (yes, you read that right) and...

All I’ve ever wanted to do was be a parent. If you follow me anywhere on line, you already know that. If not, I mean… well the pics say it all. (Yes, my Cabbage Patch Kid had a first and middle name.)

Blood may be thicker than water, but that’s science and this is spirit. ...

To Mother (v) to love and learn in equal measure.

I am an only child.

This is relevant because I really didn’t want to be. In fact, I made it clear with unnecessary repetition to my mother that the lack of a sibling was unacceptable!

My mother, however, was not an only child. ...

“Well that’s it” I said to my husband the day we sent our oldest to Kindergarten, my eyes moist with transitional tears. “What?” he said. “We’ve put in everything we could these last 5 years and now it’s time for her to try them on in the real...

Me, circa 1986, doing what I love best.

A conversation with me as a child:

Any Grownup: “Cara, what do you want to do when you grow up?” 

Me, holding at least one baby doll and instinctually rocking back and forth: “Be a mommy”.

“Aww”, the grown ups said,...

Welcome back, mamas. Today we're wrapping up a six part series. We started this five episodes ago, talking about the skills that your COVID babies, infants, toddlers, and preschoolers need to practice every day in order to have a breadth of skill sets to go be ready learners and ready people to...

Welcome back, mamas. We are nearly through our top five executive functioning skills series that will help your child grow into a kindergarten and world ready kid. Today's skill doesn't actually sound like one.  Today's executive functioning skill is sense of self. Let's sit with that for a...

Welcome back, mamas. I am thrilled that we are still in the middle of our five part series of executive functioning skills. We can practice with our kids every day that will set them up for success in the real world.  Today, we are talking about flexible thinking, skill number three out of...

Hey mamas, welcome back. I'm so excited that we are in the depths of our six part series.  Highlighting the five essential skills that you need to practice with your child every day to raise them into great human beings who add value to the world.  Today we are on skill number two out...