I first learned about The Mother Company when my kids were little. The Mother Company produces the award-winning "Ruby's Studio" series of books, apps, shows and activities, all focused on the social/emotional challenges kids experience every day, with the goal of helping them to become more communicative and kind. Their DVD called The Feelings Show was instrumental in helping my kids identify and talk about their feelings. As a former therapist, I loved the way they emphasized self-reflection . . .

What I Want You to Know is a series of reader submissions. It is an attempt to allow people to tell their personal stories, in the hopes of bringing greater compassion to the unique issues each of us face. If you would like to submit a story to this series, click here. Today’s guest post is by Tamara.   There once was a place for women to come together so they could prepare and be fed to go out into the world to do great things with great hearts.  The hosts set a table and invited . . .

I asked this question over on my facebook page and it prompted quite the debate, so I thought I would take it to the blog. Gifs. They are those oft-hilarious animated pictures taken from movies or videos and used in blog posts or as reactions to comments. For example:     Gif stands for Graphics Interchange Format. In my mind, therefore, a hard g is the logical pronunciation. However, I’ve heard more people pronounce it “jif”, like the peanut butter. And according to the Schoolhouse . . .

The kids had spring break last week, and I think it may have been the biggest school break let-down in the history of spring breaks. Mark had an ill-timed bromance trip to Peru with two friends, and the house we just bought closed escrow the very day he left. He couldn't reschedule the trip, which had been planned for the better part of a year, and we have been house-hunting for months for a fixer in a certain neighborhood with a little more bedroom space. When one came on the market way under . . .