For two years, my husband and I were foster parents.  Sadly, we recently closed our home though.  At some point, I may go into all the reasons behind that decision.  But I'm not quite ready to yet.  For now, I'll just say that it's a very broken system.  I know life isn't fair but these poor kiddos are getting the short end of the deal at every turn.  There needs to be change. Six months into our fostering journey, I wrote this post about What To Expect When Expecting That Call.  So that's Read more [...]

Call us crazy but last year, my husband and I decided it was finally time to get serious and get our license to be Foster Parents.  It was something we had discussed before getting married over 13 years ago but the timing just never worked out.  Now that we don't plan to have any more biological children, it just made sense to us to finally take this leap.  In the past 6 months, we've learned several things about how foster care works.  So if you're considering this path, I'd love to share a Read more [...]

I received products from Walter Foster for this review. All opinions are my own. Savannah, my almost 7 year old daughter, really enjoys drawing. Since a very young age, she has impressed us with her artistic abilities. Since neither my husband nor I can draw a straight line without a ruler, we encourage Savannah to practice her drawing so she can progress with her abilities. A few months ago, I found a Walter Foster kids drawing book at a garage sale. It showed step-by-step instructions Read more [...]

This 'Best Baby Essentials From KeaBabies' post is sponsored by KeaBabies.  All opinions are 100% my own.  **This post contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  It does not cost you anything to shop through my affiliate links. I'm a mom to six bio children and earlier this year, we re-entered the world of fostering.  After we had our last bio, we thought we were 'done' with the baby stage.  So even though our daughter is Read more [...]

Emily Reviews writers were sent products for inclusion in our Back To School 2024 gift guide. There are affiliate links in this article. All opinions are our own.  Ricoh Monitors  Since the pandemic, the local middle schools and high schools have become a lot more tech savvy. Kids utilize computers at school far more than they did just a few years ago. If your child (or college 'kid') uses a computer, tablet or phone for a lot of their schooling, consider a Ricoh Portable Monitor. Read more [...]