Keokuk, Iowa’s “City of Christmas” lights display made the list of the top 50 Christmas displays in America.
One of the 50 Best Displays in the US
Why A Balance Bike Might Be A Good Choice for a Toddler
The threes can be trying at times, but I do enjoy our short bicycle trips together. He uses a strider or balance bike, which teaches a toddler how to ride and be balanced, where a bike with training wheels teaches the child how to ride while unbalanced. The kid more easily adjusts to a regular bike when the time comes. I remember wanting the training…
Book Review: ‘Larry’s Kidney’
I find the book “Larry’s Kidney: Being the True Story of How I found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant – and Save His Life” a lot to take in as much as the title seems to be. It was entertaining, intriguing, sad and bizarre book that I read quickly since…
Six Tips to Keep Trick or Treating Stress-Free
Below are some helpful hints on having a smooth Halloween with a three-year-old that I learned from our first night out with him. Have Costume Ready Weeks Before. My son had a hard time deciding on which costume to buy. One week it was Red Power Ranger, the next Black Panther and then Spiderman. I decided to pre-empt his indecisiveness by going to Target and…
Quick Tips For Halloween Pumpkin Patch Sanity
Halloween is upon us once more and I’ve managed to take our little tyke to pumpkin patches and do the rides, find the right pumpkin for this year and not be caught in long lines. Here are some helpful hints to keep it a happy occasion! Go Early. I always go onto the pumpkin patch websites to find out when they open. I wait to…
How To Live Danishly
Londoner and journalist Helen Russell finds herself in rural Denmark when her husband takes a job at Lego. They decide to give Denmark a year and this becomes her motto. Russell decides that her new writing assignment is to learn why the Danes are rated as one of the happiest nations in the world. She endures the long dark winters, pickled herring and eating too…
Halloween Fun Can Be Had When Visiting Family
We were off to Boston once more to see my husband’s parents and his sister. We were looking at activities to do close to their house. Our little boy needs to be active otherwise like normal little boys he can get fussy. We tend to do trips around fall break since my husband is a college professor. A few years back we went to see…
Don’t Panic: Flight Delay With A Small Child
Rain showers were coming through the Boston area when we entered the tunnel that leads to the Boston Logan International Airport. We arrived two hours before, which is what airlines recommend in order to make your flight following checking luggage and security. We have a small child so this includes a suitcase and a car seat. When we came out of the tunnel I had…
A Poignant End to Reading ‘At Home in France’
After I read “At Home in France,” I did what I always do, I wanted to know what the author did after she published it. Author Ann Barry was not able to share more tales of her life in her second home near Carennac, France, since she died of cancer at age 53 and sadly the book was printed posthumously. We have things in common;…
The Natural World At Its Finest: Shaw Nature Preserve
A hike around Shaw Nature Preserve led to snakes, green and red trees, and an abundance of different terrain. Wildflower Trail We first took a small walk around the Whitmore Wildflower Garden checking out some of the flowers in bloom next to the Bascom House. This garden displays five plant community areas (woodland, wetland, glade, savanna, and prairie. I took a long walk to check…
