You Are Not Your Children’s Entertainment

You are not your children's entertainment

The more you set the expectation that your kids need to entertain themselves and let you work (or even relax!), the easier it will get. Like anything, it takes time and patience from both of you for this new habit to form.

Read More

How to Keep Your Kids Active

keep your kids active

With gyms closed, schedules out of whack and a lot of physical education classes shut down due to online learning, you may be wondering two things: How do I fit in my workout? How do I get my kids off the couch? No matter what age your kids are, they need regular physical activity. If…

Read More

How to Encourage Healthy Eating in Your Family

encourage healthy eating in your family

When you’re busy, it’s so hard to keep up with healthy meals. Especially when the kids crave and ask for all the junk. Pizza, Chick-fil-a and other fast and convenient foods often become a staple–and they have in our house too. But surprisingly, the kids have been pushing back on this kind of food. And…

Read More

How to handle 4 kids in 4 different schools

How to handle 4 kids in 4 different schools

By now, kids across the country are back to school. My kids have been back for several weeks now, and it’s been interesting having four kids in four different schools. Of course, this was really my doing. When you spread out having kids across nine years, you really get what you get. No complaints here!…

Read More

Indoor Fun for Bad-Weather Days

As kids get older, they start to ask for birthday parties that are a little out of the norm. When we celebrated Lucy’s 11th birthday recently, she asked to go to the mall with her friends. Not knowing what kind of trouble a group of 11- and 12-year-old girls could get into at the mall,…

Read More

How We Defied the Marriage Statistics

Though statistics show that U.S. divorce rates are actually dropping, divorce is still very common. According to The New York Times, those married in the 1980s had about a 47% chance of divorcing, while those married in the 1990s (like Jeff and me) have about a 35% chance of divorce. These statistics still aren’t very…

Read More

The Donut ‘Do – Inspired Fun

Lucy’s summer camp had a dress-up day and we needed an idea. Fortunately, my niece had just done a fun “crazy hair day” activity where she’d come up with a really creative hairstyle, so that was our initial inspiration. I searched Pinterest for more ideas and found someone who had done a great style where they…

Read More

First Impressions of Last Chance

We needed to do some camp shopping and on our way to find Nordstrom Rack we stumbled upon Last Chance.  For those who (like me) are new to Last Chance it is Nordstrom’s final-clearance store for returned and overstocked merchandise from Nordstrom stores, Nordstrom Rack and Nordstrom.com. (Quick note – All merchandise at Last Chance is sold as-is with…

Read More

The Heat is On – Our Summer Schedule

Ahhh, Summer – school’s out, sun’s out and the pressure is on for parents (well, at least that’s how I feel). Summer in the Ratterman household includes the kids going to various day camps for most of the day, including tennis camp.  This is both fun and builds skills plus teaches sportsmanship, so it’s a…

Read More