Do you ever feel like whining? It’s kind of fun to make your voice match your reluctance to do something you have to do. “I don’t wanna balance my checkbook, it’s nice outside and I wanna go play in the garden!” Wah, wah, wah. The thing about whining is that it’s annoying and you can get into a habit of it. I'm sure you have a few master complainers in your life.

Do you ever feel like whining? It’s kind of fun to make your voice match your reluctance to do something you have to do. “I don’t wanna balance my checkbook, it’s nice outside and I wanna go play in the garden!” Wah, wah, wah. The thing about whining is that it’s annoying and you can get into a habit of it. I'm sure you have a few well-known complainers in your life.

As a parent, you can nurture your children’s imaginations by providing good books that inspire them to imagine and art supplies that give them a way to express their creativity. If they’re musical, be sure to give them access to musical instruments. One of the best gifts you can give your kids is clutter-free space in which to create.

It’s also a good idea to encourage kids to share their dreams when you’re at the breakfast table every morning, as sharing dreams will cultivate the child’s ability to remember their dreams and learn from them. Children love to talk about their dreams, I know because whenever I get the privilege of being with a messy-haired, sleepy-eyed child, I always ask and it always turns into a wonderful and creative discussion. Try it tomorrow morning as you sit and enjoy the start of your day with your kids. 

In this video clip, my sister Peggy and I share some great Halloween tips and important advice.

In this video clip, my sister Peggy and I demonstrate the crazy ways we came up with last-minute creations for our kids to wear on Halloween and how fun they were to throw together. As usual, our television talk show hosts were somewhat speechless (that happened a lot!) when we’d shove coat hangers into tights and smear our faces with Karo syrup and coffee grounds.

The important lesson here is when we become more organized we set the stage to create. We become creatives! Clutter gets in the way of our creativity. Decluttering and ending your "stuff management" days will pave the way to fun, creativity, new adventures and excitement on Halloween as well as all the days of the year!

Would you like to have more harmony and peace in your home?

Can you call to mind a family in which each member is happy and loving? Maybe it's your own. Happiness is nurtured at home. A happy home is filled with peace and harmony. Would you like to have more harmony and peace in your home? Take what I learned from a different kind of family...my chorus. 

I love all the women in it: all 110 of them! When I joined ten years ago, it was as if I had an instant set of new friends that shared one of my passions: singing harmony. I’d like to pass on to you some lessons I’ve learned from being in this family of singers that might be applied to having a happy home.

1.   LOVE

Love is the most important element in any happy group. Every one of the singers in my chorus loves music and loves what happens when we sing together with love as our reason to be doing it. Our supreme goal is to have that love reflected out to our audience, lifting each person and changing the atmosphere in the room.

Of course we love our families and when all of our “To Do” lists are crossed off and our fondest figuring outs are quieted; our love is the most important part of our experience as women.

Child Locked in Antique Safe

A few years ago, I was at a grand opening of an internationally known bronze sculptor’s establishment. It was held in an historic building that has been restored to its original integrity. After the festivities, a child accidentally closed the door to an antique, walk-in safe, seeming to seal her younger cousin inside! The mother of the child in the safe went nuclear!

She had been one of the main organizers of the event and all the fussing and preparation for the big ceremony paled to the agony of this mother as she stood on the outside of the safe in hysterical horror. As it turned out, the safe had not locked. All it took was a screwdriver and a few minutes to nudge the heavy door open.

What I observed was a mother who was instantly reminded of what was really important in her life. Love of her child. Organizing the event, which I’m sure had consumed much of her time, was insignificant compared to her child’s life in that moment.

2. JOY

"The first hunk was just like mud!"

Have you heard people say, “The kids today have short attention spans. Because of quick-paced television, they’re used to watching three to four-second bites and become restless when the action is diminished.”? HOG WASH! As I sit in an Amtrak station waiting for a train that’s now 38 minutes late, I’ve been watching a grandmother read Curious George to her five-year-old grandson.

From my vantage point, she appeared to be a rather listless reader, void of expression, sound effects and lifted eyebrows accompanying some of Hans and Margaret’s incredible thoughts, yet the child was glued to his grandma’s side listening to the story.

When the book was finished, he pulled another from his backpack and she proceeded to read it. The train turned out to be an hour late and the child remained interested in books the entire time. So much for the short attention span.

So here are what I believe are 6 benefits of reading bedtime stories to your children.

1. Cultivates Imagination

Now that visual stimulation is served up via television, IPads, IPhones, Xbox etc., children rarely get to tap into their imaginations unless we read to them, or until they can read. As a child, I loved radio (it was before we had television) because my imagination provided the visuals. Because we don’t have kid radio, unless we read to our kids, their ability to use their precious imaginations and be able to visualize will weaken.

I remember one Christmas, my daughter Peggy bought a bunch of children’s books at a neighborhood garage sale and recorded reading them on a cassette tape recorder for her non-reading cousins as gifts for Christmas. As adults, those cousins still speak of how they loved her gifts of being read to.

My husband Terry and I recorded books on CDs, the same way Peggy did with a cassette recorder. This way our grandchildren could listen to us read the books we gave
them as gifts.

7 Ways to Avoid Meltdowns

Just the thought of your children throwing a fit in public can cause you to have a meltdown. Relax, mamas, it’s normal for kids to have meltdowns, they’re part of growing up. However, even though meltdowns are normal, don’t let them become the norm. If children are allowed to throw fits, without your disapproval and consequence, they will learn to use that negative behavior to get their way. You are the boss. Here are my 7 ways to avoid meltdowns.

Did you hear that American Way (American Airline’s inflight magazine) is featuring the House Fairy this month? The House Fairy is flying high on this news and she prompted me to celebrate such wonderful publicity by making this handy dandy tip sheet for you mamas who fly. With vacation time here, and if flying is in your plans AND you’re taking the kids with you, here are what made my top ten list for happy flying. . . short of drugs. 

I know which one is my favorite, which one is yours?

1. Be Prepared                    

Designate a carry-on as the entertainment bag. Keep what’s in it a secret, bringing out surprises as the trip goes. Busy kids are happy kids. Bored ones have the ability to terrorize everyone on a flight, including you.

• books
• notebooks
• pens
• crayons
• coloring books
• Ipad with favorite movie 
• Kindle

Children have very small ear canals and when the cabin is pressurized tiny ears can hurt. Chewing sugarless gum can help and once the jet is air bound it isn’t needed. 

3. Let it Suck              

Nurse during take-off, or have a binky ready. I don’t think I’ve ever taken off without hearing an infant screaming because his little ears hurt. Sucking helps.

4. Turn Bedtime into Fly-time        

Matching PJs don’t just have to be at Christmastime. Deck your whole family out in new jammies for the flight. You’ll crack up the flight attendants as well as fellow passengers. Tell your kids you get to have a pajama party on the plane. You may have a hard time sleeping on a flight, but I’ve never met a kid on a red-eye that wasn’t asleep and I’d love to see a fun-loving family dressed for bed on a red-eye.