We Do Follow

Most blogs come with ‘nofollow’ tags built into the comment area. This was originally supposed to be a way to deter spammers because their links wouldn’t be indexed by the search engines. So, if a search engine (like Google or Yahoo) sees a rel=”nofollow” tag on a link, they will ignore it. They don’t follow the link, and they don’t count the link in the site’s rank (the site of the...

13th wedding anniversary

Billy & I celebrated our 13th year married this month. It’s been a wild ride but we hung on tight and never fell off. These pictures were taken on our wedding day under the Verrazano Bridge (in Brooklyn) at Cannonball Park (formally known as John Paul Jones Park). Here’s to the next 13 honey! Share ...

What My Girls Are Reading

My two girls enjoy reading much more now that their unschoolers and so much more then when they used to go to school. Both of them (Shawna who just turned 12, and Jacqueline who is almost 9) spend hours reading and the nice thing is…it’s their choice. Being an avid reader myself, I love that they choose to read. Here are some of the books (and a magazine) they’ve been enjoying. Some of them were read by...

I’ve been tagged: 8 things About Me

Dharma Mama tagged me to tell 8 things about myself. If you’re interested, I was also tagged at my adoption blog Forever Parents and I wrote eight things about my adoption journey. 1. I’m a second generation American. My grandparents were born in Sicily, Italy. I’m Italian on both sides actually. I closely identify with my heritage and speak a little Italian. My father spoke it fluently but not much around...

Changing Template

I’ll be changing the template here so things may be missing or a little weird until I get it all fixed. Some or all of my blog rolls may be missing until I copy the code. Share

How we celebrate diversity

Definition of Diversity:“The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It is the exploration of these differences in a...

Early Christmas Shopping

Am I the only one that does Christmas shopping all year round? I find that with three children, it’s financially easier to buy things throughout the year than try to to it all right before the holidays. Also, doing it a little at a time gives me the time to pick out gifts that they’ll love. I’ve blogged before about Jacqueline’s passion for space & astronomy and we’ll be re-doing her room...

Love of Learning

My daughters have a love of learning. Shawna has been out of public school the longest, (since 11/04) after being in from K through half of the 4th grade. Like my other two, between the foster care system and the public school system, she pretty much had all the creativity and curiousity sucked out of her. I’m starting to see a light shining in her eyes. She’s starting to get interested in why things happen and...

What to do with your children when school is out

It never fails. This is the time of year posts all over the internet start popping up on forums, blogs and websites. Offline conversations start having a dominant theme. They usually go something like “AAAAHHHH!!! It’s summertime and school is out!!!! What should I do with my kids???” There are also parents who openly complain that they don’t want to be subjected to their children all summer and count...

Thinking Blog Award

Dharma Mama gave us our second Thinking Blogger Award (our first was from Doc). Here’s what said on her blog: My third award goes to Joanne at A Day in Our Lives. Joanne and her husband adopted a sibling group from foster care, and Joanne writes about living with and unschooling her kids. She also runs an adoptive parent message board, and I get a lot of good advice and support from her. Thanks, Joanne, for letting me...