Carole P Roman Book Review

When we do our history and geography, we love to focus on how things may have been for the kids. What would a six and seven year old do 200 years ago - or today, but across the globe? A lesson may touch on the idea, but we fill those gaps with books.

Children's books like those written by Carole P. Roman can be such a fun way to explore history, or culture or even practice reading.  We received 3 more books from the Carole P. Roman books and collections to add to our home library. We really do love Carole P. Roman when we do our history and geography work, so I am excited to share three more tittles from the Carole P. Roman books and collections.




Last time I reviewed books, our focus was on the historical side - ancient civilizations. This time, we got to explore the world culture books from this collection.


We received and read:

• If You Were Me and Lived in . . .  Mexico
• If You Were Me and Lived in . . .  Egypt
• If You Were Me and Lived in . . .  Australia

These books were specifically written to introduce children ages 4-8 to other cultures around the world.  Younger children can listen as they would to a story, and it can be used with older children because you can ask them to do more research or read more about the country.  Our current geography program focuses on one country at a time, so I chose three books that fit right in with what we're doing. The girls both loved looking at the words in the other languages, and we were thankful the pronunciation is in the book too! You get some basic facts about the country and capital, and then you get into the culture. What your name might be, what food you might enjoy, what you might be doing in your free time. They aren't a thorough history, obviously, but they pique the interest to learn more about the country. Madison loves working these facts into their play time - suddenly their play dance competitions have turned international! These books were definitely within the reading level of a second grader, and I love when I can have Madison read one to Reagan.

Favorite facts? A bunch!

For Egypt, it was all about the holidays. Sham-al-Nessim was fascinating to them. They made comparisons to how we celebrate Easter, and thought it was very interesting that holidays can be about different things but still share ideas of celebration.

For Australia, the discussion centered around how things are on the other side of the world! Summer in January? Winter in July? How does that happen? What a great way to show how "normal" is completely influenced by where you happen to live in the world!

For Mexico, the girls loved learning about Chichen Itza! They recently had a friend take a trip to Mexico, and were confused when she told them about chicken ease-a, so this cleared that up a bit. Now they want to go too!


There are so many of these books to supplement an elementary geography study. We could spend a whole year using these books to take us around the world and learn about what life is like for the young people living across the globe.



Carole P. Roman writes so many wonderful children's books on so many topics. I loved reading about what other crew members got to read, and now our wish list is growing! And check out more about Carole P. Roman and all of her books on her website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Owning Up

Both the girls don't like being caught in the wrong. They panic. They cover up. They deny fault. They cry. They shut down and refuse to talk. They feign memory loss.

We've had issues with both girls getting so upset and spun up in their guilty actions that they'll make things much, much worse by refusing to accept responsibility, steadfastly denying an observed accident into a huge web of lies (that inevitably are easily proven wrong). They'll wail and carry on, and somehow we have a much bigger problem.

I get it. It's age appropriate, and even beyond that, it's human nature to avoid being caught out. Guilt and shame and worry about what you've done and what happens next. I've had a few situations in life where I've had to admit to some pretty big stuff, and the thought of it still makes my whole body cringe.

However, I've also learned, in my many years of being caught in less than perfect behavior, that those instincts are SO WRONG and make everything SO much worse.

So, now, as a parent, it's my job to try and teach the girls, so they don't have to learn the lessons in their adult life, when the stakes are much much higher than finding out who spilled their water or left the back door open.

1. Don't hide your own mistakes.
If you knock something off the counter, acknowledge it. If you ding another car, let the owner know. If you lose something you borrowed, replace it. And let your kids know what you're doing. Let them know you're frustrated that there's a mess to clean up, or that you feel really guilty and you're worried about what might happen next, but that mistakes happen.

2. Let them know that accidents are accidents.
My sister and I were chatting about this the other day.  She knocked a bottle of salad dressing out of the fridge while searching around. They're getting their house ready to sell, so they are getting in the habit of keeping things immaculate, and salad dressing is a pain to clean up, especially if it gets under appliances. As she was cleaning it up, she was thinking that if her daughter had been the one to spill something, she would have flipped out on her, about the mess, about how hard it is to keep things clean, and probably would have sent her to her room for being careless. But really, accidents are accidents. They can make you mad, or they can make you upset, but they aren't punish worthy.

3. If you do lose your temper, own up.
I do lose my temper when those kinds of accidents happen. That's what happens when you get frustrated, and messes are a huge trigger for me. But all this does is make the girls afraid of what will happen if they have a mess making accident, or spill, or lapse in judgement. And when the fear instinct kicks in, they make more poor decisions. So as hard as I try NOT to lose my temper, when I inevitably DO, I make sure that I own up. I apologize and admit that I was wrong to lose my temper. I explain that I was frustrated at the mess, but that we know that accidents happen.

4. Keep your word.
When I'm looking for the truth, for someone to own up to something, I typically let them know that there will be NO CONSEQUENCE. And I make sure that I actually stick to that. When I ask "what happened", I'm asking because I need the information to know how to help fix it. This took some time. The fight or flight instinct is strong, but I find that when I remind the girls that if I said "no consequence" I really mean it, and I can remind them of times when I've stuck to it.

Basically, the way to teach kids that owning up is hard, but the right thing, is to teach them that you still struggle with it. It's still scary to make a mistake that can have ramifications, but ultimately, that sometimes, doing what's hard is the best choice. 

Big lesson for the girls - own up to your issues

Zirrly Super Bead Review

March is not my favorite homeschool month. We're usually all cranky and tired and just not feeling it like we are in the fall and spring. To combat all this negative energy we've been trying to do more arts & crafts, so we were thrilled to try Super Beads from Zirrly.  We choose the Mega Pack to get a good variety of templates to work with.

Both girls ADORE crafts. They will paint, draw, cut, glue, assemble and make lovely, learning messes. I, however, am not a fan of the mess nor the time it takes sometimes for me to be involved. I want them to be independent, but I also don't want chaos or tears. My girls have used bead crafts before. In fact, we went through a few months this past fall where they were downright obsessed and I had an ironing pile that was shockingly large waiting for me daily. These beads were intriguing because they require no ironing - just a spritz of water and a little wait time. The girls, at 6 and 7, could (theoretically) do this project start to finish with no help from me.


Each kit comes with everything you need: an instruction manual, beads, a spray bottle (ours came with two, which was PERFECT for two kids), trays for the creations, a plastic tool for placing the beads (only one of these, unfortunately), and pattern cards (the mega set came with four designs - but five cards each. Definitely better for a class than a family, at least in our case).

The girls spent a happy morning with the beads. Madison chose to do the apple, and Reagan, who is loving elephants right now, went for the elephant. Madison finished quickly, but Reagan got frustrated quickly. At six, she's at the low end for the fine motor skills of these beads, and probably would do better with help. Madison said it was pretty easy to make, but the one thing she didn’t like was that all of the beads have to be facing the same direction.  There’s a little lip around one end of each bead, and all of those must be facing up. It's a fine distinction that she didn't always get, and it was a little frustrating for her to place a bead, notice it was "upside down" and have to remove and replace it. The bead kits that use ironing don't have that issue, so it was an adjustment. As the girls get more accustomed to this particular kit, I'm sure that issue will fade away.

4500 beads is a LOT of beads!

We've found that these trays from IKEA are ideal for any bead crafting.

Ready to be sprayed!

Definitely proud of her creation!

There are enough beads for plenty of creations, and the girls loved that the trays could snap together to accommodate bigger creations too. They were planning on a "giant rainbow", but a glance through our beads did show that we'd be a little constrained by how many we had of each color, so they adjusted. There was definitely a surplus of red, blue and white. I'm sure different packs have different colors to create with.



Overall, the girls had fun and are already looking to see which set they'd like next. They are leaning toward the Jewelry Set, but they also loved the idea of the 3D projects (which I'm sure I'd need to help with).



Other members of the review crew reviewed different sets. It was very cool to see how each family made these craft kits their own!

Getting Our Ducks in a Row

Slowly, painfully slowly, Adam and I are chipping away at our "list of things that really needs to get taken care of". We finally replaced our broken family room furniture. We finally got the family room carpet replaced. We've scheduled our new patio door (which is an entirely different story I'll tell another day - probably not until it's finished, since, you know, tempting fate).

And now we're looking at what's coming up next. We need to replace the front door too. The roof needs replacing. The girls' bathroom needs a facelift - badly. The kitchen floor is on the list. I'd love to do the upstairs carpet. The interior needs painting. And my car is on that list in a BIG way. Now that Subaru has FINALLY released the model I've been pining for, I'm ready to send my car shopping liaison to go get me one (only halfway kidding. I am terrible at big purchase shopping and my father in law used to sell Subarus. He is totally my proxy for this experience. I care about the color).

Our list is a lovely thing, but after getting burned a few times, we're being very cautious with how much we do at once and how carefully we do it. We had some beautiful landscaping and stonework done a few years ago, paid for it from our savings, and then got thrown into a really awful situation with Adam's business. A few years after that we'd just started to rebuild that nest egg and got knocked down again. So although we are back on track, I'm very opposed to taking on loans or wiping out savings to do it. It might drive us crazy (and we each have our pet project that we're willing to thrown out the rule book for), but we're being smart. If the past ten years have taught us anything, it's that you truly never know when life is going to knock you down, and you don't want to already be in a vulnerable spot when it does.

Plus, there are the extras. With a new car comes a change in our insurance. Big home improvement projects always seems to include an add on or another project uncovered. With Adam working at home and me homeschooling, any work on the house is a huge disruption that we need to plan for.

And everyone has an opinion about what we should do and who we should use and why we should just do it all at once...and that's fine.

If you're not our duck, get out of our row.

Know Your Strengths

Everyone has their strengths. And everyone has their...let's call them lesser strengths.

Lately, I feel like I am just full of lesser strengths. I'm in a slump. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the time of year, but I'm just a tired mess. I'm behind on everything. My lists have lists. I have clutter everywhere. I'm just lazy and crabby.

I make great plans to get out of it, but then I don't follow through. I talk myself out of things. I'm super tired tonight, so I'll just get up early tomorrow and be ready to go after a good night's sleep. And then...can you figure out what happens?

I'm getting done what needs to be done. The girls have been ready for their dance competitions, and we're arriving, on time, neatly packed and ready to go. I might be behind on laundry, but (not counting the sock basket), that's getting finished too. Our house is untidy, but it's not in a state of disrepair.

I'm making myself feel a little bit better by employing the "just one thing" method. I am choosing one thing to tackle (theoretically, my plan was one "paper" thing and one "cleaning" thing, but I promised myself I'd be ok if I got one thing entirely). Instead of looking at my lists and panicking, I do one thing. I update the calendar. I clip the stack of coupons. I get the schoolwork piled up organized into weekly assignments.

It's helping. I am nowhere near caught up with everything, but I'm caught up with some things.

Still, even after the worst of my slump, I know my limits. Right now, in this mental state, I should not be making major decisions. That's one of my biggest reasons why I'm basically sending my father in law off with Adam to get the new car, when the time comes. I don't care about the details, they're better negotiators than I am, and it's a giant weight off my shoulders. Vin is really good at this stuff, and he likes doing it. I'm terrible at it and it's a stressful chore.

I'm sure as we crawl toward spring (and I mean weather, not calendar, since the weather is the one who isn't cooperating), I'll get more and more of my mojo back. And hopefully, my "one thing" strategy will leave me in decent shape.

But I'm still sending the boys to Subaru. Knowing my weakness? That's my strength.

Parenting Made Practical Review

Have you ever wondered if you're teaching your children what they should know at the various stages of life? For me, it's so hard to get a yardstick against where we "should" be.  For any parent who isn't quite sure, like me, Parenting Made Practical may be just what you need. The goal of Parenting Made Practical is to “Encourage and equip parents to practically raise obedient, respectful, and responsible children in today’s world.”

I reviewed the book What Every Child Should Know Along the Way  and I was also able to check out the DVD Navigating the Rapids of Parenting.  I think every parent could use a bit of encouragement when it comes to raising children so I was looking forward to watching and reviewing Navigating the Rapids of Parenting from Parenting Made Practical.





This book is intended for parents of preschoolers through college (there's a spread!), and it's written by a homeschooling mom.

To be honest, it was a little...heavy...on the Biblical side for me. I'm sure I'm just encouraging people to worry about my family by saying that, so please know that it's not necessary. I certainly wouldn't classify myself as someone who eschews anything Biblical. We attend church and Sunday school and are bringing the girls up in a Christian way. But it was a bit too much for me and I don't know that I'd be totally comfortable recommending it to my homeschooling friends who are less religious. They may be off put and give up early. In addition, although it's just a general idea, the pages and pages and pages of rules and don'ts were overwhelming. Personally, that kind of list isn't the most helpful for our family. We're more likely to say "you CAN play here" and "these are the things you ARE allowed to use" than give them endless "don't this" and "you can't" that.

However, once I wrapped my head around that and distilled the ideas down to the big picture, the big picture is a good one, and the charts and suggestions for each age are very helpful. I'll keep this book around as a reference.



Although I thought I would only get the book, I was surprised by getting a DVD surprise in my package! Always fun.

In the opening scene Carla says: "During transitions our children are changing and so are we, because they are moving through a phase that for them they are growing into new things that they don't know how to handle." This is exactly the heart of parenting.  It's a road of transitions for you and for your child. I've written about this before - every time you feel like you've confidently figured out how to work through a hard stage, they're out of it and onto the next hard stage. They can't yet make sense of where they've grown into.

I'm running into this with my almost 8 year old. She's growing from little kid to big kid and there are plenty of struggles in there. She wants so desperately to be independent, but she's not quite there yet - but I also know that keeping her down isn't the right choice.

The DVD is about an hour and a half long, but it's broken into four phases. I watched phase one and two, since that's where my kids are, which is the first 40 minutes. We're just out of the birth - 5 phase (very rule focused) and are now completely in the elementary stage (training). The goal is to anticipate these "rapids" before the kids hit them, so we can guide them through, rather than fight our way through with them.

I wasn't shocked to see that it is just as religiously driven as the the book. Again, this isn't a BAD thing. It's just for a very specific audience. Would I share it with our friends in town who are Jewish? Our co-op friends who are non-religious? Probably not, which is a shame, because it's good overall information. It's just a little much.



Other Crew members reviewed different products so be sure to read the other reviews to learn more about the other products available from Parenting Made Practical. When the girls are older I'll be interested in the book and DVD of Taming the Lecture Bug and Getting Your Kids to Think.

Lurking Underneath

Such a pretty surface, such a mess underneath.

I'm running into this a lot lately. Things look clean in our bedroom, but I'm pretending I don't know what's stuffed in our spare closet. The girls claimed they've cleaned their rooms, but their drawers and shelves are a mess.

A friend of mine did a remodel on her house a little while ago and basically got every homeowner's worst fear. When they pulled off the old siding to re-do, they found massive structural damage. Mold, water damage, rotting wood. Yes, it was good that they found it. It all got taken care of, and the final product is beautiful. But it was a massive increase in time and money, and had them terrified, for a long time, of what else might be lurking underneath.

Frankly, it had - has - me scared too. Doing home improvement is terrifying. When the carpet people came to replace our family room carpet, I was thinking all too clearly about the fact that this carpet had been laid down in 1994 and not touched since. We had no idea what the floor underneath looked like. The company we'd purchased from warned us that their people couldn't do any structural repair, nor could they lay new flooring on a damaged sub floor. If something was wrong, we'd need to deal with it. I stood there as they scored and removed the old carpet and pad thinking please be ok, please be ok, please be ok. 

It was ok. Super dusty, but ok. And now it's lovely.

But you just never know. And it's not limited to home improvement. It could be anything. You hear about couples who fall apart and think "what? Them? Really?" They were great! They were fine! But there was mess underneath.

You can be a health mess underneath.

A financial mess underneath.

An emotional mess underneath.

And until you pull back the surface (or someone forces it back) you might never know. If our friends hadn't decided they wanted new siding - which was more an esthetic choice than an upkeep one - they might have lived with problems festering away in their walls for years, getting worse and worse.

So take the cover off every now and then, if you can, and know exactly what you're dealing with.

When Your Memory Slips

I'm in a slump lately. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's just that March is my least favorite month of the year. Maybe it's that the weather has reverted back to January, with raw cold and weekly snowstorms. Maybe it's that I've hit that point in our school year where I feel like we've somehow gotten hopelessly behind and will never catch up again.

I've been in slumps before. I know I'll get out of it. I have a few strategies cooking, and as soon as I get the energy to implement them, I'll have a foot up to get out.

Because the big thing that's killing me now is my memory. I have always had a ridiculously good memory, but it has been letting me down more and more lately. I know, I'm getting to 40. I won't have my crazy "look at it once and remember it always" memory forever. But I'm starting to drop the ball, and that needs to stop.

Like the other week. I dropped Madison off at dance, and instead of killing time at that end of town, I decided to bring Reagan home and try to get some cleaning done. I knew I had limited time, so I was watching the clock like crazy.

All of a sudden, I looked at the clock and panicked! We were going to be late! It was 7:00, dance ended at 7:15, and it was a good 20 minute drive. Why weren't we in the car yet?? I hustled Reagan out of the house, yelling about shoes and coats and panicking that Madison was going to end up worrying and waiting.

About halfway there I realized that dance doesn't end at 7:15. In fact, NO activity that my children do has ever ended at 7:15. Not this year, not last year, not dance, not gymnastics, not cooking, not either child. Ever. Dance ended at 7:30, and has all year long. Why 7:15 popped into my brain...I have no idea. But we did make there for 7:15, and then killed a good twenty minutes waiting for Madison, who takes her time getting her shoes changed.

OK, so that's one brain fart. Then, I had another one. Madison was invited to a birthday party.  First, I wasn't sure if it was Saturday or Sunday. Reagan had been invited to a party too and I was unclear as to whether or not there was a conflict. Finally, figured all that out. Then, I was confused about the time. I couldn't remember if it was 3:00 or 3:30. I checked the invite. 3:00. I put that time in my planner and in my phone. I wasn't sure about the location. Checked the invite, put the address in my maps, noted the time again.

Then, my brain decided to override all these notes I'd written. I was suddenly 100% confident that the party was at 3:30. We left the house and arrived at 3:15 and I made Madison sit in the car. She begged to go in and check it out at 3:20. And...yeah, she was late and missed the first game of laser tag. She still had fun and was fine with it, but I was mourning the loss of my mind.

We very nearly missed an appointment I'd set up. I completely forgot that a guy was coming to measure the door and was still in my pjs when he showed up.

So what do I do now?

Well, for the time being, I stop trusting myself that I won't forget. As far as I'm concerned, I will forget, so I set up checks for myself. I write it down. I tell other people. Madison is exceptionally good at remembering this stuff, and Reagan, when she chooses to, also has an elephant memory. I trust the two of them to help. I set alarms that I can't ignore because "oh, yeah, I know that's coming".

There might be shame in forgetfulness, but there's not shame in using every tool at your disposal to help you remember!

CursiveLogic Review

Handwriting is not always a favorite in our household. Both girls struggle with getting their letters formed neatly and correctly sized. Last year, when I was asking for advice, several people suggested I start Madison with cursive, alongside her print work. In some cases, it comes more easily. Madison loves the "fanciness" of cursive, so she's much more apt to do her handwriting work. Madison has already started learning to write cursive, but she's got a long way to go, so I was thrilled to receive the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack and The Art of Cursive from CursiveLogic!


You really couldn't have come up with a more perfect name for this company. The logic is present and the instruction is so clear, so sequential, and really takes something that seems complicated and breaks it down. We're working these letters first. Why? Because they all start with the same kind of stroke. The pages are aligned with the coil on top. Why? Because you need to be able to angle your paper correctly, left or right handed, without the coil being in your way.


Madison isn't quite 8, so she's on the younger edge of this particular book. I really had to sit and do everything with her, guiding her. An older child may be able to use the webinars, or even just the instruction in the book, and work more independently. The webinars were great for ME. They helped me feel more confident so I could guide Madison. We worked slowly, both to avoid frustration, and to make sure we were following the logic and not developing bad habits, just for the sake of "getting through it". This will take us a while, but I'm ok with that. An older student might work their way through more quickly. In a school setting, the estimated time is about 10 weeks to work all the way through the program. I'm not sure how long we'll end up with.


The Art of Cursive coloring book is a beautiful book. I kept this one for myself. This coloring book is not for teaching students how to write in cursive. It offers a very quick review of the different letter styles to practice and then moves into beautiful coloring images with quotes. The images to be colored are made from cursive letters and strokes. Each picture includes a quote to be traced and copied. I have enjoyed being able to work through this coloring book that is part work book too. I know most adults have their own "style" of cursive handwriting, since most of us left our formal instruction behind QUITE a while ago. This is fine, but now that I'm trying to teach someone else how to form letters the "right" way, it's great to have my own instruction as well. Madison loves when I work alongside her. Not to mention - it's coloring! Coloring is something I love to try to get to daily, because coloring is a way to relax during the day.

Madison and I both use our special markers when we work on cursive. I like that these pages were thick and sturdy, avoiding the bleedthrough.

Back trace is the part she struggles with, but she's definitely improving.

It's a beautiful looking program, and well thought out. It's logical, it's made with quality materials, and overall, I'm thrilled we're getting the chance to work with it! I love that I have the book to work with as well. Learning together as a family is one of the best parts of homeschooling!

Readers can save 20% on the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack by using the discount code: CREW2018 on the CursiveLogic website.

The Pencil Grip Review

Why are there markers sitting on the table with no caps? Where are the caps? WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW?? WHY ARE THE CAPS NOT ON THE MARKERS? THIS IS NOT THAT HARD!

Ok, that's a slight dramatization of what I yell when my girls have their independent time - especially the little one, but that doesn't mean I'm not screaming in my head. Both of my girls LOVE their supply boxes. They love having their OWN supply boxes, because they never have to fight over who is using what, who lost what, and who "ruined" what. Reagan just turned six, and we're still hoping the responsibility idea sticks soon. That kid loves to draw, and loves markers, but leaves caps off like it's her job.  So when we got a set that claimed they wouldn't dry out, this marker loving daughter enjoyed using Magic Stix Washable Markers from The Pencil Grip, Inc.!



The Pencil Grip was started by an educational therapist over 20 years ago. Since then, the company has grown to include hundreds of innovative products that can be used in both home and school settings (or, in our case, homeschool) including many art and writing supplies. We've used the Kwik Stix and the pencil grips, and we've always been very impressed. It's high quality material, designed to be used by kids. Washable and unscented are two big pros (after the girls have been coloring for a while that unscented thing gets even more important), but this particular marker have a claim that you can leave the cap off for SEVEN DAYS and they won't dry out.


On one hand, this is awesome, because I'm really tired of finding markers that are completely dried out and worthless. On the other, I don't want to encourage anyone to leave caps off markers. A capped marker left on the carpet is one thing, but even a washable marker left on the carpet can be a mess.  So although I love this feature, I'm not selling it to my kids. I'm still harping on that six year old to cap her markers. So we didn't "test" it officially. I did leave the caps off overnight, but I recapped before we used them for school again. Did they work? Absolutely no difference in strength or color at all.

Magic Stix markers are Reagan's tool of choice for her journal.

Magic Stix perfect for the kid who ALWAYS LEAVES THE CAPS OFF.

On of my favorite parts about these particular markers is the case. It's sturdy, each marker has a spot that holds firm, and it keeps these markers contained. One thing I hate about our usual brand of coloring products is that the boxes rip easily. I'm always searching for that perfectly sized container to hold them, but nothing is the perfect fit. This case is perfect for these markers. It's easy enough to carry on it's own, but it's slim and about the size of a folder, so it slides easily into the backpack when we're heading out.

The only slight issue we've found (and I've found this issue with pretty much every set of markers we've ever used) is that they do bleed through the paper. Bold colors are bound to show from the back. They didn't soak through and tear the paper, but you definitely can't use them on both sides without some definite shadowing. Yes, I'm being picky, and a marker that can do this on regular paper is probably something that doesn't exist, but that just goes to show you that nothing is perfect.

Overall, we love them. Reagan claimed the 24 pack for herself, but we also grabbed a 12 pack on Amazon that Madison likes because it's slightly smaller. Both girls are keeping them in their backpacks for all our "out of the house" adventures!

Diagnosing the Issues

So many times we ignore the symptoms until they actually smack us in the face.

I'm going to use poor Madison as an example here.

Madison has bladder/kidney issues. We found them when she was about five, although they'd probably been around for a little while. We had everything looked into and treated things aggressively for a little while, and then gradually backed off as she grew and her body and mind matured. She's generally fine now, knows her issues and handles them well.

But every once in a while, things will flare back up. It's usually a gradual thing. She'll have more "urgent" situations where she needs to drop what she's doing and take a restroom break ASAP. She'll wake up with a wet bed. She'll be generally uncomfortable. None of these things are huge issues on their own, so we'll find ourselves ignoring them. Sometimes, she won't let me know, for whatever reason.

Then, we find ourselves smacked in the face with a big flare. An infection that needs treatment, a public accident that leaves her humiliated. She's upset, I'm upset, and what makes me the most angry is that we could have handled things incredibly easily if we'd just dealt with them early.

I do this myself. I've been more prone to headaches at the change of season, when the pressure in my ears and sinuses goes haywire. If I grab at those issues right away, I can usually stave off a bad headache. I can flood my system with water, I can take a decongestant, I can use my homeopathic and natural remedies to keep things at bay. Or, I can ignore them until they turn into a headache that makes my eyes twitch and sends me to bed with a light blocking mask.

I do it with everything. Car stuff. House stuff. School stuff. When little issues arise, I just sigh and work around them. I deal with the tire light, the sluggish WiFi, the glitchy program. I can't think about getting the issues actually looked at and taken care of, especially when they seem like minor annoyances, so I just put them off instead of diagnosing them and getting them taken care of.

This month, in the midst of my slump, I want to make sure that as I crawl my way out, I'm actually fixing the issues I'm running into. Diagnosing what's actually going on, and what I need to do to keep things running smoothly. Maybe, by April, I'll have a smooth running life again, with nothing shaking me off course!