Stay at Home Mom

I t is time for Super Bowl Sunday and for us that means family time.  The Christmas ornaments are finally in boxes and ready to be stored for another year down in the basement. The trip to Costco for massive bags of chips and giant tubs of salsa has been wrapped up. The team T-shirts are clean and ready to go.  We're about ready.  Top 5 reasons Super Bowl XLIX (49) is Family Friendly 1. A moment FROZEN in Time Or Idina Menzel sings the National Anthem Idina used to be known for her portrayal of Elphaba in the Broadway musical Wicked but now is best known by every single kid in the Universe as the voice of Elsa in the Disney movie "Frozen". Videos of kids singing Let it Go have gone viral on YouTube. But most importantly, Idina is singing the National Anthem at this year's Super Bowl. If you have any Frozen fans in your house you will definitely want to make sure you are in front of the TV in time the the National Anthem. READ IDINA'S INTERVIEW HERE

The New York Times featured an article this past month titled Why US Women are Leaving Jobs Behind . It was an interesting article. Typically, I am not a fan of these kinds of articles because they end up being more editorial showing the authors bias than actually helpful. But this article seemed to discuss the issue in a fair way illustrating the differences between governmental policy in the US and in Europe that try to provide support for the family and for business. In Europe the trend is for 1 year maternity leave and massive family benefits. In the US the trend is for companies to provide for more flexible work schedules but not as many required benefits for parents. There are a couple of notes that are very exciting about this article. Women actually do have more choice these days in regards to how they decide to live their lives and raise their children. There is more flexibility in the workforce for women even though there are still huge challenges with lower incom

On Christmas day we ran into some friends of ours and our son asked our friend's daughter if she got everything she wanted for Christmas. She said, without hesitation, "Well, I got books and chocolate. So...YES!"  January is a great time to start your kids on a year long reading challenge. When a kid loves reading they will do better in school. So giving them the gift of a love for books is one of the best thing you can do for your child. Here are some of our favorite all time books to get the year started. Very Very Young We Love Chicka Chicka Boom Boom because it is fun to look at and it is even more fun to read out loud. Let's face it, we want everything to be fun for our kids but if we are having fun too then it is even better. Not every kids book is fun for us to read. And you know that one word that kids love most is "AGAIN!". When they find something they like they want to do that thing over and over again. Kids will love it if you tell them