Just A Mom from Ohio

Say what you mean and mean what you say. It is a classic phrase or quote. It is universal. It can be understood for parenting, relationships, and legal transactions like selling a car. Is honesty important at all today? It feels to me as though generally I don't trust what a company tells me. Phrases like "100% beef" or "All white meat chicken" and "all natural" or "no artificial preservatives" that have popped up with fast food companies lately cause me some concern. What was I eating 20 years ago? Not meat? Does it cost more to have real food? (We know that is a yes.) Just getting into food labels is enough to cause a person not to believe much of anything a company tells us. They are very deceptive and use trickery. Why is that? Society and news media has plenty to say. How do you identify what is real or fake news? Apparently there is a new class at my local library to help with that. It is now that big of a problem. In my own li...

During a recent visit to Columbus, there was this pocket of time that occurred when the kids needed to nap and we needed to drive. So, I knew there was this store I wanted to check out near by called IKEA, maybe you have heard of it? A friend told me I would like that store years ago but I never had the opportunity to get there. But after a half day at the Columbus Zoo and Zoombezi Bay , that moment finally arrived. Thank goodness my husband was willing to drive around the parking lot for me to get my 40 minutes in the store before the kids woke up.  I was also lucky that IKEA Columbus recently opened. Those 40 minutes ended up being so energizing for me and most memorable part of our whole visit to Columbus. Instantly, my mind was visually awake. I didn't really want to blink, unless to refresh my eyes to be able to take in each new mini home. As I was walking through these staged apartments, I thought of the movie when the girl lives in a Walmart. I want to live in an IKEA....

As we celebrate the freedoms we have this 4th of July, I am reminded how blessed I truly am. There is so much to be grateful for. Christmas in July special blog post: It's a couple days after Christmas and here I go talking about the word spoiled. I just looked up the definition of the word "spoil" on dictionary.com and realized that maybe the way I had initially thought of referring to it might not make sense. You see, I was feeling, or so I thought, spoiled. I felt almost ashamed because I went to the doctor again today, making it twice in the last week, just for me. Normally I can ignore my own colds but this virus was kicking my butt and our insurance is going to be changing in a couple days and I was getting worked up about it all. So they called me in a nose spray and I was going to need to stop at the pharmacy again and I started thinking do I really need to go in there again. I literally could roll my own eyes at myself right now for that "woe is me...