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Ideas for Chores for Kids of Every Age

The lucky thing about toddlers is that they LOVE to “help.” You may have to accept that their help is not that helpful, but soon you’ll be in the habit of looking out for ways they can help that are age-appropriate. Find out the three different types of chores for kids you could choose from. Each will require a different level of commitment from you and an increasing level of independence from your children.

3 Reasons Why Kids Need Chores

Your kid needs chores because chores are the perfect opportunity to teach your family’s beliefs about work, money, family, and caring for others. Without these messages, your child grows up unprepared for the realities of a life of work, in addition to a skewed version the work it takes to run a home. Preparing your child for the world of work does not mean impersonating a drill sergeant, but putting some thought into your values and messages can align who you are to your expectations for your kids and chores.

You Don’t Need a Shower

Look, you don’t need a shower.

I don’t have a shower, I have a tub. Dozens of people have looked at my bathroom in amazement, saying “how do you shower?” The truth is, the bathtub shower is much better than a regular shower, and I’d love more folks to understand why.

Here’s what you see on Pinterest: beautiful clawfoot tub in an impractical situation. Here’s the reality: clawfoot tub with a rigged-up chrome shower curtain holder, and a shower curtain that gets moldy and gross.

New Orleans is full of clawfoot tubs and rigged up shower curtains. Honestly, it looks like hell. And the experience of showering in a tub completely surrounded by a plastic liner is, um, slimy.

Sometimes They Destroy Your House

Some weekend mornings you wake up and your Girl, who has been up since 5:45am adventuring around by herself, has gone and made it her morning’s mission to destroy your house.  She’s dumped out all the beads in the entry. Every paper cup from yesterday’s puppet project has been stabbed with a marker. There is a […]

Why You Should Get a Plant

Maybe it’s a holdover from a childhood spent outdoors, a college job at a garden center, or the Girl Scout merit badge I got for growing flowers from seeds, but I love being surrounded by plants. I aim to have at least one plant in every room in the house, and I believe there are real benefits to it. If you’re not a plant person, meaning you think they look great but don’t have experience taking care of them, look no further! Here are some great reasons to get a plant and some tips for keeping them alive and well.

Easy Weekly Meal Prep with Snapware

Do you struggle packing daily lunches or cooking family meals and need a system for weekly meal prep? Do you have about a hundred different plastic containers, all different sizes and mis-matched lids, taking over your cabinets? Now that I pack 10 lunches a week, 5 for me and 5 for the Girl, I was on the hunt for a new container. My requirements: interchangeable lids, options for small sections inside the container, and easily stackable containers…

How These Book-Lovers Quit Buying Books

As a former girl who could read all afternoon, a former English teacher, and lover of physical books, the kind made of paper and cloth that you hold in your hand, I have bought and boxed and moved and arranged the same set of books for two decades.