This probably sounds like an unusual request, but can we have our regularly scheduled winter back? The balmy temperatures and slushy bits of snow on the ground are kind of weird. For one thing, some of my plants are confused. Is it already spring and time to grow? Or should they wait another month or two before emerging from the ground? It's hard to tell either way, so some of them have jumped the gun this year and have sprouted early. The determined green things that are ready to reach for the sun. It saddens me to see them, especially as spring is so far away. For another, the melting snow …

Now that the holidays are well behind us, let me make a confession: I occasionally pick out gifts for my kids that I would like to receive. Let me back up and say that yes, of course I purchase gifts with Gracie’s and Liam’s interests in mind. Well, usually. For Christmas, both children received books. Gracie received much-wanted and asked-for movies and craft supplies last Christmas, and Liam received tool sets and things that go “vroom” because that’s what makes him smile. But I also picked out a LEGO set for Gracie that was actually for me. It was a bit complex for her age, and I did it …

Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you: A friend or family member will compliment you on your shoes or sweater, and instead of simply saying "Thank you," you blurt out "I got this at TJ Maxx for $10!” I do this almost daily. I am a bargain-hunter, and there is nothing more thrilling than to share shopping tips with people. While I find shopping in general to be tedious, I enjoy the challenge of finding a great deal for an item — and then bragging about it to everyone I know. Sharing news about where to find a great deal is a time-honored tradition in my family. We gab about what we’…

About a year ago, I wrote a column on my quest to find truly hot sauce. The reader response was incredible, and I received quite a few tips to check out different sauces. So, now what? Since that column ran, I’ve continued on my quest to find a great hot sauce. My criteria is this: The sauce has to be hot enough to slam a glass of milk to cut the taste, and bonus points will be awarded if I get tears in my eyes. My search for the last year has, for the most part, been disappointing. Most of the hot sauce on the market isn’t really all that hot. Oh, sure, the label might say it’s three-alarm …

In my family, laundry day is just about every day. With two kids, using rags to clean up spills instead of paper towels, and working out, my washer gets a lot of use. It’s a lot of laundry, is what I’m saying. So to save a bit of money, I thought I’d make my own laundry detergent.   For the record, I’m no stranger to using homemade cleaners. I polish my furniture with an olive oil-lemon juice combination, and I go through vinegar like it is water. But those tend to be in small batches, so if I goof up a mixture, I can just adjust it as needed. Mixing a big concoction of laundry detergent — …

It’s the same story every year for me. On December 31, I sit at my kitchen table and compose a list of things I’d like to accomplish in the new year. At that time, I’m pumped and eager to start the new year, because I have places to go and people to see. But by mid-February, I usually run out of steam. One by one, the resolutions fall by the wayside as I give up and move on to something else. Usually, my excuse is “I’m bored,” or maybe I realize the goal is too much on my plate right now. I know that I’m not alone, as many people tend to give up on their new year’s resolutions not long into …

Call it intuition, a sixth sense, or just incredible good luck, but my mother is what you might call a “gift whisperer.” She has an uncanny ability to find just the right gift for a recipient, and it's almost always something the recipient loves, but didn’t even know they wanted. Case in point: About 12 years ago, my mother converted piles of our old family movies from reels to VHS tapes, and gave copies to my father, sister and me. It had honestly never occurred to me to want a copy of our home videos, but as soon as I saw the gift, I knew it was probably one of the best present I’ve ever …

About a week before Christmas last year, I thought I’d be clever and warn Gracie that “Santa is watching you” if she took a toy from Liam or refused to clean up her toys. This move worked for all of three days. Initially, the warning would stop Gracie in her tracks. But soon, it went unheeded, as Gracie is, shall we say, head-strong. It was while she was throwing crayons one afternoon last year that I had a flash of brilliance: Why should I encourage her to be good for Santa? Shouldn’t she be good for goodness sake, as noted in the song “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”? And besides, “Santa’s …

When you are the parent of young children, you quickly face the dilemma of too much kid-created artwork and not enough walls or fridge space to display it all. Compounding the problem, you also feel as though you should keep every single thing your child has ever created. You want to keep the pieces because you see something so trapped in time from your kid’s art. Perhaps it’s simply a hand print, and you always want to remember when their hands were so small. Or maybe it was the way they’d write their name when first learning how to print. While the need to keep and preserve is real, it can …

I’ve had a relationship with knitting that’s as long and complicated as an unraveled sweater. I started when I was 9, having spent the day at an elderly babysitter’s house. I was also battling a cold and couldn’t sit still. Knitting needles were thrust into my hands and I was shown how to knit. It was a basic stitch, but it worked, and I proudly showed off the beginning of a scarf to my parents later that afternoon. I was also hooked — no pun intended. I finished the scarf and went on to create more scarves as I found the allowance money to buy the odd ball of yarn here and there. I’d wander …

If I have to skip past Grandma Brittle on the Candy Land board game one more time, I think I'll have to pull out my hair. I’ve been teaching Gracie a few games in the last few months. Memory has been a snap for Gracie, as she has a crazy-good memory. She also loves Candy Land, if only because she routinely lands on Queen Frostine’s square and easily wins the game every.single.time. Naturally, it's her favorite game, and we play it several times a week. It's the default game for her, as it's easy to play and doesn't require any reading on her part. After all, she is only three. As we play, I …

Is there anything better than braving Chicago’s chilly fall weather to trick-or-treat and come home with a bucket brimming with candy? When I was a kid, I consistently lucked out with trick-or-treating. Regardless of the weather, my bucket was always filled with a good assortment that struck the right balance between good candy and trinkets. There were always a few duds, like those awful strawberry candies no one actually likes and the hard taffy that almost always pull out a tooth. But the hits were many, including handfuls of Snickers bars and bags of M&Ms that would keep us fat and happy …

“Over-sexualized.” “Inappropriate.” “A bad influence.” The recently released tokidoki Barbie doll has been called these, and so much more, in the press. Nicknamed “Tattoo Barbie,” it is your standard Barbie doll designed by Italian artist Simone Legno, but with pink hair and tattoos. She wears an off-the-shoulder black shirt (Oh, the horrors!) and is accompanied by a dog named “Bastardino” — which Google tells me is Italian for “mongrel” — in a cactus costume. For what it’s worth, the doll retails for about $50 and, according to the Los Angeles Times, will only be available for sale online. …

I’ve always been envious of people who make their own Halloween costumes. In almost every instance, the homemade costume includes more detail and lends an air of authenticity than just about anything you can buy pre-assembled at a store. Let’s face it; if you’re dressing up as Dumbledore, you need to put a little more effort into your get-up than simply donning a long beard and wearing a robe. I am not one of those people who can make a costume from scratch. I have friends and relatives who can walk into a thrift store and emerge with a fantastic costume they’ve put together incorporating …

I am a child of the 1980s. I grew up grooving to “The Superbowl Shuffle” and could sing the theme song to the Gummi Bears TV show with the best of them. I proudly wore my hair in a side ponytail, à la Punky Brewster. At that point in my life, I counted Rainbow Brite and Carol, my Cabbage Patch doll, among my best friends. What can I say? I was definitely a material girl. And then I grew up and out of these iconoclastic toys. By the time I was about 12, the relics had either been donated to a charity or unceremoniously stuffed in a plastic bag in my parents’ attic, never to see the light of …

The scenario plays out like clockwork in my home every evening. Gracie, standing amid a pile of toys and books in her room, resolutely refuses to clean up after herself while I cajole her into clearing some space. “Not gonna,” she says while I try to help her out by putting away a few toys. “Look!” I say, handing a doll to her. “You can put your doll on your bed, and then you can pick up your books.” She turns her head away from me, and I can see that’s she already in Act II of the evening’s performance, where she will pretend that she can’t see me and go on her merry way, which usually …

Let me get this out of the way: I’m not running in the Chicago Marathon this year. Yet again, I broken a promise to myself that I’d run a marathon because, yet again, my body has different plans than what I’d like it to do. This time, it’s not a baby, but a hamstring with a nagging injury that has kept me back from running the race. I had to stop running for several weeks in August, right about when I was supposed to be running well into the double-digits on my long runs. I first felt the pain in the midst of a long run, and I did that “Ignoring the pain will make it go away” thing that doesn…

Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar: It’s about 3:30 in the afternoon, and your child protests for the 15th time that they don’t need a nap. Bonus points if they yawn in between screams of “No nap!” Sadly, I’ve seen this almost all too frequently in my own home. Gracie is at that age where maybe she doesn’t need a nap, and for a long time, I was too reluctant to admit it’s true. Let me admit to being completely selfish as to why I want her to continue taking naps: Nap time for her equaled down time for me. Before she started boycotting naps, I’d use the quiet time to brew a cup of tea, …

This has been a lack-luster summer for my yard, which I predicted last month. Sometimes, I hate it when I’m right. The weather has been strange, with spurts of heavy rain between periods of dry weather and heavy winds. The result is a scraggly patch of vegetables that have all but given up on hope. One tomato plant died a few weeks ago, its stalk yellowed and bare. The other tomato plant continues to produce, but it’s a half-hearted attempt. My lettuce has gone to seed, and the carrots became mushy messes in the soil. The cilantro checked out a few weeks ago, which is just as well — one can …

Gracie’s screams were short and piercing, each one louder than the last. It was swim class — her second one in the session — and her one-on-one class with a teacher was clearly not going well at all as she struggled and kicked. I stood on the other side of the pool in the baby swim class, holding on to Liam and alternately pretending I didn’t hear her scream and willing her to just get in the pool, already. I was embarrassed that it was my kid screaming and crying, and I couldn’t very well hop out of the water and get her to stop screaming. While Gracie screamed, I felt the stares from the …