Since they could reach the box, my children have been possessed with the need to get the mail before each other and definitely before me. This was especially painful during those seemingly endless days when I felt like the lone…

It was a typical Saturday in mid-August—sunny, 98 degrees with 347% humidity.  I dragged the dogs outside with me where they promptly dug under the boxwoods until I heard Chinese barking. The neighbors say I’m nuts for gardening in such…

If you want to learn more about me, look at my refrigerator.
There’s a picture of two men playing with their little boys — my husband with our son and my brother in law with his. I keep it there…

Standing in the check out lane at Super Target watching the little girl in front of me place her brand new pink and gray backpack onto the conveyer belt made me starting reminiscing of all those years of Back to…

I am a bad mom. At least if I believe the two nasty letters I’ve received over the past nine years of writing this column.  Actually, the big word they used was, “whiner”.  I am a whiner.
And their point?…

“Attention TJ Maxx shoppers.  Would customer Karen Rinehart meet her party at the mall entrance service desk?”
Were her texting fingers broken?  Only a long and loyal friendship will survive this act of shopping humiliation. Trying on swimsuits is stressful…

According to American retailers, Dads don’t do much but play with power tools, do yard work, golf,and wear socks.
If I believe the magazine and newspaper stories I’ve read this past week, dads don’t know how to relate to the…

I was one of those little girls who dreamed a prince on horseback would wisk me to his castle and tell the world he scored the most beautiful maiden in the land. Then I graduated from college and discovered reality.…

Dear Son,
I want to apologize for that time when you were 14 and I drove you and your friends to the mall wearing one of your old Fruit of the Loom whitie tightie brief’s waistband as my ponytail holder. …

8 years prior: Fly by the seat of your pants when Fido the family dog dies.  Have husband come home early from work.  Say goodbye to Fido and, for the first time, cry together as a family.  Tell the quasi…