Several days ago, Kim Tracy Prince posted “7 Things today’s kids know that you didn’t” there, and it made me think about the things my daughters will never know about.

I’ll turn 32 in a couple of weeks; I am a young woman. I didn’t see the seventies for all intents and purposes. I’ve grown up in a high tech world.

Yet, thinking back on the ways in which the world has changed in the last 20 or so years boggles my mind. I remember life before microwaves and VCRs and child safety seats. I didn’t use a cell phone until after I graduated from college, and I didn’t purchase one until several years after that.

My daughter (who just turned 4) has never lived in a home without central air, never ridden in a car without automatic windows. She’s grown up using my iPhone and laptop. She will never know a world without reality TV and Google and bicycle helmets, but , make no mistake, there are plenty of things she’s missing out on.

1. Outhouses – When I was growing up, Grandma had an outhouse in the yard. It was leftover from the time when there was no indoor bathroom (added in the early 1970′s)…

Read the rest of the post at BabyCenter.com

Photo source

(Comments are closed here. Go comment on the BabyCenter.com post instead.)

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Today, please join Social Media Moms as we raise awareness and money to support the amazing work being done by Save The Children in Japan.  You can click on the image below to donate on the Save the Children site.

According to Save The Children, around 100,000 children were displaced by what has become Japan’s worst natural disaster since 1923.  Due to the fact the quake and tsunami hit during the day, most children were in school or nurseries apart from their parents. Fears are that many will be orphaned.

The horror of Japan’s earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster has raised concerns over the long-term impact on children, some of whom are already displaying signs of trauma, from screaming nightmares to silent withdrawal.

The potential for lasting trauma is compounded by the unusual multiple nature of the event: ground shaking lasting five whole minutes, water rushing hundreds of miles an hour over entire regions, and a nationwide scare over a possible meltdown at a nuclear plant.

Experts say the scale of the loss and disruption for some children would have been almost inconceivable: homes destroyed, friends disappeared, one or both parents missing or killed, or siblings and other close family members missing.

Initial efforts to help them come to terms with the tragedy can only be made in extremely stressful circumstances, with families packed into ill-equipped evacuation shelters, suffering bitterly cold nights and frequent terrifying aftershocks.

“We found children in desperate conditions, huddling around kerosene lamps and wrapped in blankets,” said Save the Children spokesman Ian Woolverton, who visited a number of evacuation centers in the regions of Japan that bore the brunt of the March 11 tsunami.

“They told me about their anxieties, especially their fears about radiation,” Woolverton said, adding that several youngsters had mentioned the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which they know from school books.

Parents, many traumatized themselves, have struggled to keep their own fears in check as they try to soothe their children and provide them with some sense of normality and security.

Atsushi Takahashi, 36, said his two-year-old son Haruto has been terrified by the constant, sometimes powerful aftershocks.

“He’s been very scared, crying out ‘the house is shaking. I don’t like the house’,” Takahashi said, holding his son as he waited in line for fresh water.

“I always tell him that everything is okay and I hug him,” Takahashi said. “I think we just have to let time heal the wounds.”

Many children have had trouble sleeping, waking repeatedly in the night with bad dreams, while others have mentally shut down, shunning any company but their parents, whom they refuse to let out of their sight for even a moment.

Woolverton said the priority for Save The Children was to set up “child-friendly spaces” where children of a similar age could interact and start to play again.

“I know from years of experience that if children play, it can ward off the chance of major long-term emotional trauma,” he said.

“The idea is also to relieve the stress on parents and to give them a break from childcare duties as they register for emergency assistance, try to find food, locate friends and family members and, in the longer term, jobs and housing.”

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

God spoke to me today.

The clouds didn’t part. There was no clap of thunder, no voice from a burning bush.

It was no less profound.

The moment was ordinary, the kind that happens several times every day. The baby was sleeping in the swing, and I was sitting on the floor, playing dinosaurs with Grace, my 3-1/2-year-old.

The Lord chose the mama T-rex to convict my sinful heart of wrongdoing.

And convict, he did.

His words, through the mouth of my daughter and a plastic dinosaur, pierced me, making me realize how awful I’ve been.

Read the rest at (in)courage, where I’m a guest author today.

Shared at PSMM

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

My kid likes to cook. I dare say she loves it.

She doesn’t care whether she’s cooking in her play kitchen, or if she’s cooking in my kitchen. She just likes to cook.

Whenever I’m in the kitchen, trying to prepare food, Grace wants to help. She pushes her Learning Tower up to whatever surface I’m working at, and she sidles right up next to me. If I’m stirring, she stirs . If I’m chopping onions, she wants to chop onions.

Every parent knows that all jobs are easier without the help of an eager but small child.

I let her help anyway. It builds her self esteem and her self confidence, and someday, she’ll actually be a productive helper.

Today, she might flip flour all over me and the counter and the floor, but next time, she’ll push it down through the sieve. It’s a work in progress.

Read the rest at Life…Your Way, where I am a guest author today.

© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I have some exciting news to share!

A few weeks ago, the wonderful Mandi Ehman, founder of Life… Your Way, asked if she could use one of my recipes in her Thanksgiving Your Way e-book. I was honored because I adore her blogs. It’s really hard for me to feature just one of her posts in Things to Write Home About each week.

I was honored, then I read the e-book.

Oh my goodness.

This e-book is a compilation of the works of 15 different bloggers – Shaina, Jen, Aimee, Crystal, Tara, Myra, Katie, Amy, my dear friend Allie, ME, and several others.

I’m not sure I’m worthy of this company, Dear Reader. I’m humbled that Mandi thought so.

Mandi’s e-book is completely free, and I hope it will help you to create a Thanksgiving celebration – your way.

You can download Mandi’s e-book, Thanksgiving Your Way free.

© 2010, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

My Grandma rarely leaves the house without Lefty.

Without Lefty

Lefty is her prosthesis, her artificial left breast.

Lefty joined our family 12 years ago, shortly after an aggressive malignant tumor necessitated a mastectomy.

From those first days, Grandma has joked about Lefty’s heft (“Who knew I had such big knockers!”) and his mere presence in her life (“Where’d I leave that Lefty?”).

My sister, mother, and I were there with Grandma when she came home from the hospital with drainage tubes and bloody dressings.  She was bruised and weak but undaunted.

She was resolute; she would beat cancer.

She has.

There’s no doubt in my mind the mastectomy was excruciating for her, physically and emotionally. It must have been.

It must have been, but it never showed.

In honor of my Grandma, I am contributing to the Saving Second Base project.

I hope you’ll visit my guest post at Once a Month Mom (available after 8am on Thursday) and please consider buying the e-cookbook when it is released at the end of the month.

Also submitted to Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop

© 2010, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I met Mama Kat at the Bloggy Bootcamp in February, when I sat across from her at dinner. Since then, I have wanted to start participating in her weekly Writer’s Workshop.

I love writing this blog, but sometimes I feel like I’m focusing so much on the recipes, photos, and crafts that I don’t do much storytelling.

I started blogging for the storytelling.

The storytelling is going to keep my blogging.

So, I’m going to make more of an effort to participate in Kat’s Writer’s Workshop. Each week, she posts several writing prompts and asks participants to write on one or more of the prompts.

I chose this prompt:

Imagine your life is now a book. In 100 words, write the blurb for it. (It’s what people will read on the back cover.)

I hope you’ll play along, too.

• If you’re a blogger, participate in Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop and leave your link here, in the comments, so that I can come over and read.
• If you’re not a blogger, write your 100-word blurb in the comments.

I can’t wait to read your blurbs!

Without further ado, here’s the blurb for the book about my life:

Ever hear the quote, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.“?

Tara made big plans for her life.  Single professional, neighborhood cat lady, pursuing her dreams.

Then God laughed, and Tara met her soul mate. Ten months after their wedding, they became parents.

Tara and her husband made plans for their only child, successful careers, and fabulous vacations.

Then God laughed again.

Can we really be happy when our life turns out different than we’d planned? Find out in Then God Laughed.

© 2010, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

We’re going to be smack-dab in the middle of the East Coast blizzard this weekend, so I thought it appropriate to play along with the Blizzard Blog Hop going on right now.

My Valentine Love Notes for Kids

If you’ve never been to Feels Like Home before, I hope you’ll take a look around.

My favorite recent post was about the Love Notes I made for my daughter. With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, you might want to take a look at that.

I write primarily about making life easier, more simple, and more fun. You’ll find:

• Lots of recipes and kitchen tips because we all have eat, and we might as well do it well.
• Crafts for children and adults
• Stories about my life
• Posts about parenting a 2-1/2-year-old
• A plethora of other subjects, including homemaking, a few product reviews, and a weekly link round-up called Things to Write Home About

Lately, I’ve also been writing a lot about two projects I’ve undertaken – to read the Bible in 90 days and to lose 100 pounds in 2010. Both are more challenging than I’d imagined, but in different ways. I’m making good progress on both fronts.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you’ll visit again soon!

© 2010, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

I apologize, Dear Reader. I can’t shut up about the Type-A Mom conference.

Imagine a slumber party with 200 of your closest friends, and throw in some business elbow-rubbing, pats on the back, fun, and learning. That’s kinda what it was like.

I met so many wonderful people at the Type-A Mom that I can’t possibly name them all, but I’m going to try. I’m also going to link to all of their sites, and I hope you’ll check them out.

I spent most of the weekend with my dear friend, Allie. We should be sisters.

Except that she’s Canadian, and we aren’t actually related. But aside from that, we could be sisters. We stayed up late into the night every night, chatting and laughing like teenagers.

The photo above was taken by Dawn, who I met at my speaker dinner at Bouchon. She is the mother of eight, and I loved every moment that I spent chatting with her.

I would never have guessed that I’d have so much in common with a mother of eight, but really! I did, and I loved her.

I wish I had a picture of Sarah and Shannon. Sarah and Shannon rescued me and Allie when our shuttle driver ditched us at the airport. His replacement ditched us, too, but Sarah and Shannon drove to the airport to pick us up.

This is Julie, Alisa, me, and Allie.

Julie could be the coolest person and the best writer that I have ever met. Every single thing she writes is brilliant. I was thrilled to make her acquaintance (in an unfortunate speechless fan sort of way).

Awkward moment of the conference #17 – When I approached her, Julie was standing and chatting with Alisa. I assumed that Alisa was Julie’s friend, but I didn’t recognize her URL, so I didn’t probe. A few minutes later, I heard Alisa introduce her site to someone, and I nearly fell over. Alisa writes Project Happily Ever After, another site that I adore!

Photo courtesy of Rick Bucich at Tiny Prints

I have talked to Barbara Jones many times over the past year or so, and I’ve always hoped to meet her. I missed her at BlogHer, and I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. Barbara is even more friendly and even more beautiful in person than she is online.

One night, the gorgeous woman above approached me and said, “Oh my gosh! You’re Feels Like Home! You’re kinda famous!”

And I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Then she introduced herself as Amber, and I had to return the compliment because, seriously, she’s a lot famous. It turns out that she’s also delightful and smart and an amazing photographer.

Awkward moment of the conference #43 – I thought that Rick from Tiny Prints owned the company. He doesn’t. This came out while we were chatting with Amber about photography and bloggers and mints.

Photo courtesy of Rick Bucich at Tiny Prints

Almost as long as I’ve been blogging, I’ve been reading Pensieve. Robin Dance is glorious and lovely and real. I had the fortunate opportunity to sit next to her during our speaker dinner at Bouchon, and then we spoke together at the Blogger’s Balance session.

Chris is one of my editors at Foodie Mama. She is finishing a book on suburban gardening, and she raises chickens and a host of other animals, all while taking care of her children and grandchildren (who I believe all live with her). I was really happy to meet her.

Awkward moment of the conference #61 – I moderated both of the panels on which I spoke. It was no big deal for me since I am a teacher, and I speak in public all the time. Or so I thought.

Until I introduced Shannan as the author of the wrong blog. D’oh! I did, however, remember to announce Angela‘s pregnancy.

No awkward moments on this panel. Thank goodness! Robin and Melanie were both wonderful to speak with.

This is Robin, myself, and Amanda posing with Michael, the chef/owner of Bouchon. I thought he was fabulous and fascinating. After leaving France, he lived in Texas for 22 years, and then retired to Asheville. If you’re ever in the area, you should look up Bouchon.

Other people I loved but don’t have any photos to show off include Danielle, Lucretia, Marissa, Caroline, and Tiffany.

And I noticed something. Everyone was much more beautiful in person.

We should meet up and have slumber parties more often.

Happily shared at Tell Me Thursday, Things I Love Thursday, A Thousand Words Thursday, Show and Tell Friday, Hosted by Cecily, Friday’s Foto Finish Fiesta, and Hooked on Fridays

© 2009 – 2010, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.

Twitter gets a bad rap.

Some people {cough, cough} have a hard time managing their time, and Twitter gets the blame. A couple of celebrities make themselves look silly, and Twitter gets the blame.

I like Twitter. I have gotten writing assignments and product reviews via Twitter. I’ve made friends via Twitter. I work Twitter to benefit myself and my friends – and sometimes even people I don’t know.

Twitter works for me, almost every day.

This past Thursday, Twitter as working overtime.

Because I couldn’t miss two days of work, I had to fly in to Asheville, North Carolina, late on the first day of the Type-A Mom conference. Allie, my dearest friend, also flew in late that day. We agreed to meet up at the airport and share a ride to the hotel. I called and made the arrangements, and Allie said she’d wait for me by the baggage claim.

So far, so good.

My flight was almost 30 minutes early, and I found Allie exactly where she said she’d be. We chatted and waited the hour til the shuttle was supposed to fetch us.

The hour came – and went – and the shuttle driver never showed up. Growing impatient, I called him on the phone.

“Oh, gee, ma’am, I’m sorry, but I took another fare and can’t be back for a while,” he said.

I think by “a while,” he really meant “til tomorrow.”

I explained how we’d been waiting for him for nearly an hour, and how we had made an appointment with him. He assured us that there was a black van waiting for us across the street. He’d arranged said black van to wait for us when he realized that he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his commitment.

Looking back on it, I have no idea why I believed him. But we did.

Allie and I hauled our bags outside and looked around for a van. The Asheville airport isn’t that big, and we would have been able to see it if it had been there. It wasn’t.

Not sure whether we should cry outside or go back in to the airport to cry, I said, “Allie, I’m Tweeting about this.”

And Tweet I did.

Twitter came to our rescue. I can’t tell you how many times our plea was Tweeted and ReTweeted. Two Philly-area bloggers were on their way to rescue us in a matter of minutes, and several other bloggers offered, as well.

We got to the hotel safely, thanks to Twitter, @Phillyburbmom, and @YouOtt2Know. They saved our sanity, and that works for me.

Happily submitted to Works for Me Wednesday

© 2009, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.