Parenting Expo Pittsburgh

When's the last time you attended a parenting conference? I recently attended the winter conference for the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators and got a huge boost in my writing confidence and motivation.

Don't parents deserve the same boost?

Parents do! Luckily, the Parenting Expo is here in Pittsburgh this weekend.

The event promises to be a two-day celebration of parenting and is offering fun for kids (and parents), resources, giveaways and wonderful speakers.

Kids will get to enjoy face painting, balloon art, Soccer Shots, Radio Disney, puppeteers and jugglers.

Parents can learn about taking great smartphone photos of their kids, anti-bullying tips, tips for social media safety, talking to pediatricians and helping their kids develop social and physical skills.

One of my favorite people, Debi Gilboa, MD (also known as Dr. G) will be there discussing "3 Strategies to Get the Behavior You Want…Without Being the Parent You Hate!" I love that topic because the hardest part of being a parent usually isn't the kids, it's when I feel I've let myself down when dealing with a tough parenting issue.

I'm also excited to announce I'll be speaking on Sunday! At 2:10pm I'll be giving parents 3 Way to Work with Picky Eaters. You can read more about my talk here.

I have a few free tickets remaining to give away, so if you're interested make sure you get in touch quick!

Is it hard to eat healthy?

Do you find it difficult to eat healthy? I know when I'm stressed, tired or in a rush I tend to eat quick and dirty and regret it later. One way to keep my eating quick but eliminate the 'dirty' is to make better choices at the grocery store. I also want to have better options for my boys' school lunches and help them add some new foods to their copies of My Food Notebook.

That's why when the dietitians at Market District offered to give us a free 'Healthy Eating' tour I said yes! And when they asked me to host a giveaway on my blog of a free tour with a Dietitian at one of the Pittsburgh Market District locations and a $50 gift card when they come for the tour - I said YES!!!

This contest is about learning how to handle our healthy eating challenges and to enter the contest so to enter I want to hear your healthy eating challenge. To be entered in the contest, all you need to do is share your healthy eating challenge - not necessarily a solution. But if you have one, that's great to share, too!

Our tour was at the Market District in Pine Township and we met Amanda, the dietitian who conducted our tour.

One of my three little peppers

The tour began in the beautiful, colorful produce aisle. I was really quite proud of my children's ability to recognize and name a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and talk about which ones they have tried, liked, and not liked. We do try to eat a rainbow of foods but one of my favorite foods is white: mushrooms. But Amanda told me they are very high in allicin and help fight colds the way garlic and onions do. Sweet!

I'm trying very hard not to eat foods with added sugar lately, a challenge for my sweet tooth.  But reducing added sugar could really help my energy and focus. Amanda and I talked about protein from eggs, cheeses and meat. One new thing I'm going to try is ordering my meat from the butcher counter because they will slice the meat in appropriate portion sizes. I didn't know that!

Loved the fresh peanut butter

I asked about healthy lunch options for the kids. My middle son's biggest delight of the whole tour was the fresh ground peanut butter. He claimed he didn't like it but he kept going back for more mini-samples. We came home with a delicious tub of fresh peanut butter and a tub of fresh peanut butter with chocolate chips. I think it tasted better than Nutella. I was also looking for an alternative to the Danimals Smoothies my kids love. They are so high in sugar. Amanda encouraged me to prepare homemade smoothie ingredients at home before hand, but finding time and remembering to do that kind of planning and preparation is one of my biggest healthy eating challenges.

We stopped by the seeds area where I picked up my first batch of chia seeds. Amanda described how they are high in anti-oxidants and can help me stay hydrated. Now my four-year-old and I both add chia seeds to our water. Mmmm.

There are so many challenges and temptations that make eating healthy tough. But dietitians like Amanda offer such incredible advice and answered a lot of our questions. She even handled my boys' asking if marshmallows and Jell-O were healthy foods with gentle honesty. Amanda reminded them those foods aren't as good as real fruits and vegetables, but that a few marshmallows in a cup of hot chocolate after playing in the snow isn't a big deal. I reminded them that marshmallows do not constitute breakfast food.

So what are your healthy eating challenges? Share them with me here as a comment from Monday, Feb 24, 2014 through midnight Monday, March 3, 2014 and you earn THREE (3) entries! Check out the Rafflecopter options below to earn more entries. After the contest ends on March 3,  I will announce the winner for the $50 Giant Eagle gift card and free dietitian tour. Good luck in the contest and with your healthy eating.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Secret of a Happy Marriage

Recently, a sex therapist asked me for advice.

I gave her three suggestions, and her enthusiastic response was "Those are amazing ideas!"

Of course I was giving her ideas on promoting her practice. She has time to take on new clients and her print advertising wasn't working. But she's a therapist, not a marketer, so a friend of hers suggested she call me.  We had a great talk about reaching out to bloggers, getting more active on social media and even trying some technology like podcasting to share her expertise. She loved these ideas because they were specific and not too far outside her comfort zone.

Serious fun.

Somehow in conversation it came up that I was married to my high school sweetheart and we would celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary this July. So then she asked me, "What's the secret?"

I was really caught by surprise. What's the secret to my happy marriage?

The first answer that popped into my head was "We have so much fun together."

Later, I asked my husband his answer. He said, "Trust."

I kept thinking about her question. There were a lot of answers that seemed to fit. We're lucky in many parts of our life. We don't have serious financial or health concerns. Those things can make it harder to be happy. But even people who face those challenges have happy marriages.

Is there one secret? Probably not. Probably it's a combination of factors.

But another idea hit me (while running) about happy marriages. People need to be happy with themselves. If they aren't happy with themselves, it's very hard to be happy in a relationship with someone else.

So now I want to hear what you think is the secret of a happy marriage.

Ask My Kids February 2014

We can learn a lot from films. My children have only seen the animated versions of the Lord of the Rings movies, but already they have learned valuable life lessons. See the brief video below.




So, in addition to good advice about lava and dancing, this month's Ask My Kids featured some important questions about rings and friendship. I was inspired by my older boys' answers about always forgiving a friend. Their answers encouraged me to never give up on someone I really care about. Also, don't worry so much about a clean house.

Bermuda 2013

We were extremely lucky to have the chance to travel to Bermuda during the Thanksgiving holiday. I know some purists might argue that this holiday is supposed to be about family and turkey, but I assure you we had those. It was possibly one of the best weeks we've had as a family even counting the close quarters and two people vomiting.

We stayed at the Pompano Beach Club on the South Shore in Southampton Parish. I can truly recommend this place as family-friendly. Everyone treated our children so well and our children really enjoyed their time. 

The beach was small but not in a claustrophobic way, more of an intimate way. There were small jetties to calm the waves, the rocky limestone cliffs were rich with hidden caves and my husband and I couldn't resist peeking in some shadowy places wondering if there was undiscovered treasure. 

One evening before dinner we borrowed fishing poles from the front desk and chummed the water with stale bread. Silver fish jumped everywhere in the dark water. We didn't quite know how to use the the rods but me and my youngest landed a tiny little yellow snapper! He was ecstatic. 

So much of the island inspired stories and phrases in my mind, not the least of which was the sargassum dotting the beach. I read nine books during this trip! It was heavenly. I also received a book as a gift, written by a man from Bermuda. It was not the best book I ever read but it is truly unforgettable. 

An important element of who I am was tested during this trip. I threw up on the fishing trip. I don't know for sure if it was seasickness or my turn with the flu bug that had made life miserable for my older son two days prior, but I threw up nonetheless. It was humiliating for a moment, but I felt so much better afterward that I was actually relieved it happened. 

The fishing trip was really a highlight for almost everyone. The middle guy was insanely excited and totally immune to the pitch of the waves out by the reef. He thought Captain Bobby was a superhero and buzzed around the little boat like crazy. I think the excitement of catching the fish really hit him hard because at dinner he ate the fish we caught!! This is my picky eater, who downed two servings of grilled fish pulled straight from the Atlantic. 

So many moments, so many memories happened this week. It was a real gift, and really filled me with gratitude. It was truly a time where I felt thankful and I was not wrapped up in the traditions or whether things were better or worse than the year before. I wasn't sneaking in work instead of being with my husband and children. We were all relaxed, living in the moment, playing games and trying new things, testing ourselves with new things and discovering we liked them!

Try It! Goals for 2014

I'm a goal oriented person. I set yearly goals for my business and I have monthly tasks on index cards that help me focus and work towards those larger yearly goals. 

I sometimes set New Year's Resolutions, but this year I'm wanted to set measurable objective goals in certain areas of my life. I had my three fitness and creative ones quickly. My volunteering came next, and then I pondered and pondered and wondered about my parental and relationship goals. The parental one really stumped me. Finally, I asked my kids. The middle one came up with a great (nebulous) suggestion. I took it. 

Fitness

• Swim 2 miles in 1 swim. 
• Run a half marathon.
• Bike 50 miles on 1 ride.

Creative

• Share some of my poetry at an open mic event.
• Submit my young adult novel to agents.
• Complete NaNoWriMo 2014 - three years in a row!

Volunteer

• Visit my state and federal legislators on behalf of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
• Be a gleaning volunteer for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
• Continue being an active volunteer at our elementary school.

Parental & Friendship Goals

• "Help us grow up." Suggested by my middle son. Sounds good. 
• Go on a 'girls' getaway' with friends. 
• At least one Date Night* monthly with my husband. 

*Date night definition means we're out of the house, enjoying a kid-free activity. 

Running in January 2014

Ok, so my first photo is from a December 2013 run. But the run was so awesome! I felt great and didn't want to leave this photo out.

Dec 24, 15 minute run. Cadence avg up to 87!  23 F.

A little early Christmas present to myself, a run before celebrating Christmas. I was also counting my blessings for the year and borrowed my husband's Boston Marathon hat. I still can't believe what happened there and I'm still thankful every day that we came home safe.

Jan 4, 2014. 16:30 min run, avg cadence 89! About 37 F.

My youngest had his birthday party right before I did this run, and the sun was setting behind me. I was thinking about how the year he was born (2010 was also the year I had surgery to repair my stress urinary incontinence and how that made it possible for me to run - and live life - with confidence again.

Jan 13, rainy but 54F! Almost 20 min and cadence was avg 88

Halfway through the month and my runs were steadily increasing in length of time and distance traveled. I was thrilled with the temperatures for this run but waited too long to get outside and the rain came pouring down. No matter, it was a great run.

Jan 20, 35F but icy rain. Avg cadence 89!

Pretty excited about this run despite the tiny stinging ice particles that hit me in the face. Look at that steady orange line.  I struggle to keep my cadence up when I go up hill, and it picks up when I go downhill. But I feel like my body is learning the rhythm, which is important since my iPhone turned off during today's run and I didn't have the metronome in my ear. That happens a lot when I run in the cold.

Take that, polar vortex.

One of my last runs of January 2014 was on the infamous -30F day. I went outside briefly and decided it wasn't that cold and needed to get away from crazy snow day kids. I ran.