Henry and I have started a little foot massage ritual with each other. Usually I give him foot massages before bed (it’s the one time he truly relaxes!), but he has also started offering foot massages as a bet. For example, he bet me a foot massage that he could jump onto the raft without falling into the pool. He lost. I got a foot massage! 

I wanted to share the cream we use. I’ve used it for more than 15 years, ever since I took a massage class while I was living in rural Louisiana and they recommended it. Here’s the magic cream! It glides really nicely and

Our society has a tendency to function like a pendulum that swings from one far end to the other. We’ve seen this happen in schools (we’ve swing from phonics all the way to whole-reading or we swing from progressive, open-classrooms to “drill and kill.”). My work at Montessori For All is about  trying to stop the pendulum in the middle. There are things we need from both sides. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how the pendulum concept applies to parenting. Past historical periods have seen harsher forms of parenting (like the idea of children being seen but not heard), while now it feels like we are on the

For the past couple months, I’ve been dreading Spring Break. Normally, we go on vacation together as a family, which I love. This year, however, Matt got offered a position as a photographer for SXSW. Of course I had to say yes to my taking on more child care, so that he could pursue his passion. He has done so much for my career these past seven years. Of course I can do whatever he needs me to do. I owe him a ton! 

But I was bummed about it. Not only were we losing our family vacation, I was going to be saddled with lots and lots of solo