Without making any general announcement, my partner decided to put a couple of presents aside as “Christmas Eve” presents. Given the thorough inspection that every package put out for Christmas gets from the kids, of course it only took them .04 microseconds to realize that a couple of packages were marked “Christmas Eve Present”, and […]

The Simple Dollar is the only finance-related website I read on any sort of regular basis, mostly because of posts like this one: A Talk With My Niece. The author, Trent, is thinking about things he wants to say to a 15-year old niece of his, someone he sees struggling to put together a future […]

With the kids finally off quarantine (only one got sick, but the other two were excluded from school just in case) we can get back to the business of daily life, which this time of year means Christmas. Which means shopping.
We don’t give the kids much of an allowance, and usually they haven’t worried too […]

Readers of StepDadding might be interested in a post I wrote for lifehack.org as a kind of remedy for the rampant consumerism of “Black Friday”: Teaching Kids Charity and Clarity with Pre-Christmas Cleaning. The idea is one I got from my brother and sister-in-law (and they got it from who-knows-where) — go through your kids’ […]

Lisa Hendey of Productivity @ Home suggests several ways to encourage thankfulness in children. At the top of the list is “pray together”, and we’re not a praying family at all, but the rest of the tips are good, especialy the fourth, “Remember to thank your children”:
Next time your child brings home a test that […]

With Halloween coming on strong, here’s some tips to help keep yourself organized and make the most of the craziness:

Photojojo offers some great tips on Halloween photography. Favorites: Take costume pics at dusk, before the light disappears and the sugar rush kicks in making clear shots impossible. Light the outside of your jack-o-lantern with […]