These are expensive times, and families are having to get creative in maximizing their resources. One blogger, Mary of Owlhaven, is a mom of ten kids committed to teaching her kids common-sense frugality by example.

All day today the talk was this is Sarah's night. This morning I spoke with a woman from Minnesota. She said, everyone around here knows someone like Sarah, and like Sarah's family. And yes, that makes her success all the more remarkable. Yesterday I met a woman from New Hampshire, she said even the Hillary supporters she knows are enthused about Sarah, and independent women like her style--a mom, a professional and someone who doesn't put up with bullying.

Some Democrats are saying Sarah Palin's a token, but she's not a token to me. She's not a token to those who voted her into office time after time, first to the city council, then as mayor, and now governor of Alaska.

Recently, I interviewed photographer Rick Smolan, who - along with his wife and creative partner, Jennifer Erwitt - put together the new photo book, “America at Home: A Close-Up Look at How We Live" from Running Press.

This weekend in New Orleans I popped into the St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square, a building I've walked by several times but never entered. The usual things brought me inside this time: curiosity, a compulsive search for cool pictures that increasingly defines my days, and a sudden desire to find a calm spot in a nonstop city I love that can nonetheless can be exhausting.

I'm not sure where we moms got the notion that we should put everyone else first, but as soon as I finish packing my kids' lunches, reattaching this button, supporting my husband through his mom's recent illness, and putting together this report for the PTA, I'm going to figure it out. Oh. Wait....

"Go with the flow, Laurie. Go with the flow. It works every time." So said my new friend Frances Ellen as we walked along Fisherman's Wharf, in the middle of a day where I was distinctly not following this directive for a variety of reasons, and she was nudging her daughter and my friend, BlogHer Health and Wellness contributing editor Catherine Morgan, to buy a tote bag in which to...er, tote the conference swag back to Florida.

Are you ready for this year's Great American Backyard Campout? It's this Saturday, June 28th, 2008. Whether you've camped before or are just thinking about starting, one thing's for certain: Starting a family does not mean stopping camping. Well, let me clarify that: It doesn't mean an end to camping for most people.

Summer is consistent for me in as many ways as it is not, it turns out. Jobs, schedules and styles all change, but from year to year, I know a few things for sure. I'll complain about the D.C. humidity, but never as much as I complain about ice falling from the sky in the winter. I'll fall in love with fresh white corn and tomatoes all over again (go away, Salmonella, go away.) And every July, I'm likely to be in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for a weeklong family beach vacation that is much a ritual as a getaway.

We've all read the news reports and heard what the experts have to say -- eating together as a family makes kids healthier and happier and less likely to use drugs.

Everyone expects mommy bloggers to write about their kids. In fact, many women who write a so-called mommy blog are only too happy to transcribe every detail of Junior's life -- first steps, first words, and every occurrence in-between and beyond. Share and share some more seems to be the order of the day when it comes to talking about our kids.

I think we probably have all suffered from some degree of emotional health issues in our lives. Whenever someone talks to me about feeling depressed or anxious, the first thing I say to them is...you are not alone. We've all been there in some way or another. I also think that acknowledging you have a problem is half the battle. And that doesn't make you "insane" or "crazy". Really...How many "crazy" people realize they're crazy? I think the most sane thing a person can do is admit they are feeling depressed or anxious, and reach out for help.