Grasshopper New Media Presents...

September is as natural a month as January for making resolutions. Summer wraps itself up and the sun is softened by cooler mornings and the rumbling bus pulls to the stop and whisks the school-aged Punks away for hours of “reading streets” and “everyday math.”
And Mom walks back to the house holding […]

I just came back from a trip to visit my husband’s family.  They’re a jovial, fun-loving bunch, always telling jokes and stories.   On this visit, I started to notice how we all develop a certain sense of infamy in our own families and extended families- a reputation, so to speak, a character sketch, a role […]

My twin daughters are almost four years old - and I wonder where the time goes! I’ve recently decided to establish a routine of one-on-one time with each of them. I’m not really sure how to go about this. My time is going to have to be split into threes, because I cannot forget about […]

It is fascinating to watch two children of the same age and that are exposed to the same home environment develop into two distinct little individuals. Every now and then someone will say “Don’t compare them.” While I agree that it is not good to compare one child to the other, I think it is […]

We are on vacation with my family this week.  It’s been largely lovely, but we’ve had moments where we put both the "fun" and "diss" into dysfunctional.
My younger sister, in her late 30’s had a serious brain injury a number of years ago.  This has left her with some cognitive problems, and it causes a […]

We arrived at my brother’s house at midnight tonight, which in your time is actually last night. I often choose to drive in the wee hours if I’m solo parenting the kids for a trip. They fall asleep in the car and usually transfer pretty easily when we arrive at our destination, meaning there is […]

We visited my parents’ new home today ( they’re blogging about it here), to see how things were coming along. It’s due to be ready in a few weeks, and so we wanted to see some of the “behind the scene” stuff. What we discovered when we got there touched my heart more than I […]

I’m in charge of the house, and by default, in charge of the family. I didn’t ask to be in charge, nor do I enjoy being in charge. But my kids are, well, kids, so they’re not mature enough to be in charge, and my wife works 60-80 hours a week, so she doesn’t have […]

Last week I talked about heading to the beach for a few days with my big family. We did it and it was a success. We all have intense sun hangovers and tired muscles to show for it. At any given moment there were multiple games happening on different areas of the […]

About six months ago my husband and I decided it was time to add a pool to our backyard. We live in Arizona so outside activities are limited during the summer when it’s 115 degrees in the shade! Our twins are just shy of four years old so they are not quite ready for museums […]