We brought some things that have made our trip easier, and there are others that we wish we had brought. Here’s our suggestions for 10 things to bring with you for an extended trip.

The truth is that balancing everything I want in my life (to be a great employee, a great parent, a great partner, a healthy person) is a daily struggle for me.

But I have also learned some things from experience and from the wisdom of others. Here are my thoughts, and I’d love to hear in the comments how else you find ways to align your priorities and make it all fit together.

As 2019 begins, and my 36th birthday nears in just a few days, I pulled up our list to see how much progress we have made and consider what we might prioritize next. With professional and personal life being a bit intense in these past few years (two kids joining our family, tragic losses in our family, me becoming a maternal near-miss survivor after the birth of our son, and job changes), I had assumed that little progress had been made since we haven’t checked in on the list in a while. I was pleasantly surprised to have completed more of the list than I had guessed.

Six activities for kids to celebrate Earth Day.

I've included the more traditional activities (like dying eggs and an egg hunt) as well as some that will be new for us (like making a plastic egg sculpture with glue dots and creating a collage with the leftover dyed eggshells). I have also, as always, built in easy activities for days when doing something involved is just not going to happen (like reading these two Easter-themed books before bed).

I could not stop thinking about why this is a bad idea. There are too many reasons even to count. So instead of sleeping, I wrote. Angrily. Passionately.

An easy, printable countdown to have fun as you count down toward Valentine's Day with your family.

In our first guest blog, Jonathon Stewart shares about our choice to move to a tankless water heater and what you should consider when making the decision for yourself.

I found out yesterday that some of my favorite folks are expecting their first baby. Here is my advice to them - I hope it will be helpful for others, too.

I was surprised that several of the items that ended up becoming must-haves in our family were things I did not even know about as a pregnant woman. I learned about them from moms groups, friends, and by googling various problems that needed solving. It would have been great to know about them before our baby arrived, so I'm sharing them today in hopes of helping other new parents have a slightly smoother first few years with their kids.

I recently offered an incredible woman a job. Before I picked up my phone to call her with the offer, I jotted some notes for myself. I thought I'd share those notes with you today, with a little extra "behind-the-scenes" thinking.

The easiest way I have found to organize them is to simply put two holes into each card using a hole punch, then use these inexpensive book rings to capture all of the cards from a given year together. I typically put our family's card on top and jot down the year in permanent marker.

The 34 ideas in here include everything from sending a care package to a soldier to buying a toy for a child in need to watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas to writing a letter to Santa.

A friend recently asked about LASIK surgery, and her request sent me looking for an old note that I had written the morning after my experience with the surgery in 2009. I still have friends ask about the surgery all the time, so I thought I would share those words here for anyone wanting to learn more.

A picture-based printable checklist for kids to shop for the most-needed items to donate to a food bank.

A printable Thanksgiving countdown: each day, kids open an envelope that has a paper inside describing a fun, simple activity to do that day. The activities include things like reading a Thanksgiving-related book or collecting food to share with those who do not have enough food.

A countdown of simple family Halloween activities to add some fun to your October. Includes an editable printable to modify however you please.

Even with some incredible friends to model parenting for me before we had kids of our own, and all of the things I learned before my first was born in books and on the internet, there are many things I would have liked to have known about much sooner in my parenting journey. Today I'll share 5 of them.

After we had several months of success with The Daily Five, we realized it would be helpful to get more organized about the other things that need to get done regularly in our house, but that did not need to happen every day. Enter The Weekly List. This is where we added tasks that need to get done each week, assigning them to a particular day of the week.

Last August, I had just gone back to work after maternity leave with my second child. I was exhausted. My work was busy, we had a 2-year-old and a newborn (who, as expected, was not yet sleeping through the night). We were just a year into our new home and had projects going. You know the drill - you're reading this because you are super busy too. 

My husband and I were sitting together after our kids were asleep at the end of our rope - we had to improve how things were working in our household to help things be more sustainable.

The idea we came up with that night has stuck with us for more than a year and has made a huge difference: The Daily Five.