I love my facebook community. You guys are always keeping me on my toes and making me think. Here are a few of the best discussions from the past few weeks . . . There are two kinds of people at Christmas: those who use only white lights on their tree, and those who are wrong. I was looking for quotes on compassion and kindness to hang on my walls and you guys came through with some amazing suggestions. I suck at lunch and I'm not the only one. This meal-prep talk was really . . .

I've been working hard trying to reduce the excess "stuff" in my house. I recently read the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and while it's practice is a bit extreme, I really did resonate with the idea that clutter only holds us back. I've been ssystematicallypurging every room in the house, but it has been hard to get the kids to buy in. Recently, I had a little "come to Jesus" with my oldest daughter, who has a really hard time throwing things away. I told her we needed to pull . . .

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Today I'm happy to host an essay from Nicole Opper. Nicole and her wife were feature in the recent PBS series called "The F Word: A foster-to-adopt story" which follows one couple's journey to adopt a child from foster care. We adopted our first child from foster care, and watching their story brought back so many memories! It was the first time in my 36 years of life that I’ve set my alarm for 5am and actually gotten up right when it went off. No snooze button. My parents were staying at a . . .

This post was sponsored by YoKids Amy Rodriguez is best known for being a two-time Olympic gold medalist soccer star, but the role she cherishes most is that of mom to her two kids. Staying fit and healthy is a priority for Amy and she works hard to make sure she is feeding her kids wholesome foods. Here, she shares some of her best tips on how to keep active families eating well on the go. Kristen: How do you keep up with eating healthy as a busy mom? Amy: When I go grocery shopping I . . .

This post was sponsored by Kwik Stix It's getting dark earlier this time of year, and even in California the evening air is cold enough that the kids are indoors most evenings. This can pose a problem for parents with active kids who are used to playing outside until the streetlights come on. I feel like the first few weeks of daylight savings time we are always a little thrown off, sort of staring at each other at 5pm thinking "now what do we do?" It takes a while but we eventually fall into . . .