Rachael Ray

To answer my own question, I definitely think the term “bullying” is thrown around indiscriminately these days. Examples? A child crying bully when their 4th grade classmate decides to not be their friend anymore. Bullying? I think typical behavior for ten year olds. I tell my kids if someone doesn’t want to be their friend, it’s the other kid’s loss - find someone nice to hang out with. Bullying is so overused as a term that when I reprimanded my daughter the other day, she accused me of “bullying” her. The term has become a catchall for any unwelcome behavior or conflict. By no means am I downplaying the existence of bullying - it has been happening for years, but didn’t have a [...]...

My daughter turned 13 earlier this month and when a friend said to me “how is that possible that you have a teenager?” I looked in the mirror and was not at all surprised. I am so pleased by the person she is becoming - lovely, sensitive, funny, generous, kind. All of the work that my husband and I put in early on seems to paying off - with all three of our children. They are (usually!) fun to be around, pleasant company - I think at its simplest, that’s really the gist of parenting - raising kids who are good people. My newly teenaged daughter loves chocolate, but she also loves my lemon squares, and I don’t make them very [...]...

As far as Mondays go, this one is not so bad. It’s finally sunny. It’s not snowing - or hailing - both of which it did this weekend, at the end of April. I am not panicked about any specific issues relating to any of my children (at the moment - this could change at any time). Today is also a bit of a monumental day as we are getting new counters in our kitchen. We have lived in our 100+ year-old Victorian for 12 years and we are not a family that moves into a house and immediately re-does it top to bottom. Quite the contrary. We had originally budgeted for one house project per year which afforded, among [...]...

I have never liked Mondays - back to school, back to work, the weekend is over. You would think I would feel differently now that I work from home, but oh no, I still suffer from the Monday blues. My older daughter has inherited this attitude - or more like she has observed her mother who is not setting a very positive example - shouldn’t we be taking the week by storm? seizing the day? Oh well. Is it Tuesday yet? Instead I decided we should embrace our least favorite day of the week and try to do something fun. I told my daughter we would bake something special on Monday nights so at least one good thing could come out [...]...

Today is National Grilled Cheese Day so celebrate with one of Rachael’s many inventive twists on this classic favorite: Croque Monsieur BLT and Cheddar The Spaniard The French Onion Buffalo Wing Grilled Cheese Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Maple Mustard Italian-Style Grilled Cheese and Spinach French Toast Grilled Cheese with Apples ...

Being a parent is definitely a journey. I laugh when I think about the absolutes I held early on in my mothering career (No soda, ever! Chore charts will be followed. Ha.). I have had to give in on a few of my kids’ habits, and I pick my battles, as a means of survival. Just a few of the things I have learned to accept when it comes to my kids: My middle daughter will wear shorts - and only shorts -  once the temperature creeps out of the 40’s. If she is cold, she will change. My son will not eat green vegetables. He has a generally healthy diet with this exception. He likes fruit. He is growing, his health is [...]...

We were recently at a friend’s house for dinner and when we walked in a platter of heart-shaped Jello cutouts were on the counter, beautifully displayed. My kids went bananas - they have only had Jello of the store-bought cup variety at our house - they had never seen these before (You would have thought it was a platter of caviar. Not that most kids like caviar. At least not my kids. They haven’t had caviar. I digress. Maybe a platter of hot fudge sundaes).  I remember having something similar at a friend’s house when I was little but her mother called them Knox Blocks and they were cut in squares, not cookie-cutter shaped. We made some at home this week [...]...

March is tomorrow, perhaps my least favorite month. You think the winter is over, but oh no. It seems to go on, and on, and on. I am ready to put my boots away, yet I am fooling myself, I will most likely be pulling them out in April. I wanted the snow in January, yet it was no where to be found, it was waiting for March. I tend to do a lot of baking in the ho-hum days of March, and these chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting will brighten any gray March day. I am a fan of any chocolate+peanut butter dessert, and these cupcakes are moist and chocolate-y with a rich and creamy peanut butter frosting [...]...

Disclaimer - If you are not a parent this is tedious post - please don’t fault me:-). We are currently experiencing a serious battle in our house and I am reminded again of how foolish I was to think the hard part of raising my three kids was the baby/toddler stage. Ha. As a quick reminder, my kids are 12 (daughter), soon-to-be 11 (daughter), and 9 (son). My two girls are complete opposites in nearly every way, yet still very close and basically best friends. We moved to a bigger house when I was pregnant with my younger daughter because we wanted our kids to have their own rooms. Another decision we made was to give our younger daughter the biggest (kid) [...]...