When In Doubt, Bite Your Tongue

When In Doubt, Bite Your Tongue

by | Love

My daughter Kira is 20. By the time I was her age, I had been married for over a year, after walking away from my full-ride scholarship to Washington State University in order to move home and play house with a man no more mature than I was. We were doomed from the...
Do You Choose To Be Frugal?

Do You Choose To Be Frugal?

by | Frugal Living

Getting Real With Shadra Bruce Saving money. Stretching the budget. Doing more with less. Recession. Unemployment. It doesn’t matter what you call it, more people are learning how to live with less money. It’s what everyone is talking about. In ways, my husband and I...
Guilt, a State of Being

Guilt, a State of Being

by | Creating Balance

Do you feel guilty as a mom? I do. I feel guilty for spending too much time working and not enough time with my kids. I feel guilty when I’m too tired to engage with my kids and would just rather sneak out onto the front porch with a glass of wine (or, if it was a...
Living Rich

Living Rich

by | Frugal Living

I’m going to tell you a secret: I’m poor. According to every government statistic available, I live in near-poverty. My husband and I have been living on one income since two weeks before Parker was born and my doctor put me on bed rest. I initially planned on going...
25 Rules for Being a GOOD StepMom

25 Rules for Being a GOOD StepMom

by | Stepparenting

Getting Real with Shadra Bruce I am very lucky to have been involved in the raising of five wonderful children, two of whom are my birth children (an 11-year old son and an 8-year old daughter) and three that I inherited by marrying their father, who retained custody...