Years ago, when I first met my husband Karl, he said something that has always stuck with me. "Family is holy," he said. As the years have gone by and our own family has grown, those words have had increasingly greater meaning to me.

In this section, you will find everything from musings on the joys and frustrations of family life, tips and tricks from the parenting battlefront, educational ideas - and perhaps most useful: web links I've discovered for homework help. I know I'm not the only parent out there who has forgotten things like "quadratic equations" in math! Fortunately, I've found some great places to help me - and my kid - wade through the homework challenges.

From a carefree couple who'd dash off for a romantic weekend in Europe or the Caribbean, we now find our weekends slave to kids' sports schedules and household chores. The word "Mom" no longer applied to someone else. She was me! I was now the supreme fixer of scraped knees and bruised egos, the tyrant telling them one minute to read their book (not just stare at the pages) and the next hollering, "Come quick, I see a hummingbird!"

Today, we have three kids, two dogs, one cat, two gerbils and a defective goldfish who is not gold. And while Fish will neither turn gold nor die from the abject neglect to which Fish is subjected, the children change before your very eyes. That boy who entered this world the size of my forearm - his head fit in my hand and feet barely touched my elbow - is now bigger, stronger and to my delight, often smarter than I am. That strapping high school boy (the inspiration for my kids book, I Don't Want To Sleep Tonight) is followed by a younger brother who aspires to be all that his brother is, yet has his own unique set of talents (he's the one I wrote I Can Fly for) and rounding up the troupe is a little sister who is as feisty as she is pretty.