We've been television free for nearly seven years and there are only two things that make me really miss owning a TV: baseball season and Saturday mornings.

The baseball season problem was easily solved by going old school and listening to games on the radio or via the iPhone MLB application (easily one of the best iPhone apps around for baseball fans). Sometimes, though, you just need to see the game live. For big match ups, we take the kids to local food joints that are likely to have the game playing. (Our favorite is Old Pro in Palo Alto. The food can be mediocre but the atmosphere is fantastic for watching a ball game).

Saturday mornings were a different story. A simple pleasure for me as a kid was waking up early and watching cartoons while everyone else was still in bed. I want my kids to have a taste of that, and so I've been letting them watch cartoon DVDs every so often during the early morning weekend hours. They enjoy watching the videos, but there's always a struggle over which one to view. Q. is a sensitive media dude; he doesn't like some of the shows that his big brother enjoys, and that's okay. It sometimes makes it difficult to find a happy medium.

But there's this new little site called Jaroo.com and it's kind of rocking my -- and my kids' world -- right now. It's like Hulu.com for little kids, and offers free viewing of television shows and movies online. What struck me about Jaroo.com is the content -- a good portion of the shows are vintage stuff from when I was a kid. Which means I can trust those shows because I've already seen them. (Jaroo is part of Cookie Jar Group, which produces -- or has produced -- many of those shows. It makes sense to include the old stuff, but they could have bypassed them in place of newer, more popular shows. I'm glad they didn't.)

This morning I told the boys I wanted them to watch a show that I used to watch when I was little. Then I turned on "The Littles." Seven knew of them because he'd already read The Littles book, but was so excited to know that this was something we could share (it helped that I completely remembered every word to the intro song). Q. fell in love with the cute song and the eerie and adorable cute characters and their adventure.

We do put some strong limits on our kids' digital time. But a quickie cartoon on Saturday mornings with Jaroo.com is going to be a keeper, so long as they keep adding more "vintage" shows and keep the sponsored ads incredibly age appropriate to the show and limited in time (under 30 seconds).

Kudos to them for a nice site. Good stuff.

We've been television free for nearly seven years and there are only two things that make me really miss owning a TV: baseball season and Saturday mornings.

The baseball season problem was easily solved by going old school and listening to games on the radio or via the iPhone MLB application (easily one of the best iPhone apps around for baseball fans). Sometimes, though, you just need to see the game live. For big match ups, we take the kids to local food joints that are likely to have the game playing. (Our favorite is Old Pro in Palo Alto. The food can be mediocre but the atmosphere is fantastic for watching a ball game).

Saturday mornings were a different story. A simple pleasure for me as a kid was waking up early and watching cartoons while everyone else was still in bed. I want my kids to have a taste of that, and so I've been letting them watch cartoon DVDs every so often during the early morning weekend hours. They enjoy watching the videos, but there's always a struggle over which one to view. Q. is a sensitive media dude; he doesn't like some of the shows that his big brother enjoys, and that's okay. It sometimes makes it difficult to find a happy medium.

But there's this new little site called Jaroo.com and it's kind of rocking my -- and my kids' world -- right now. It's like Hulu.com for little kids, and offers free viewing of television shows and movies online. What struck me about Jaroo.com is the content -- a good portion of the shows are vintage stuff from when I was a kid. Which means I can trust those shows because I've already seen them. (Jaroo is part of Cookie Jar Group, which produces -- or has produced -- many of those shows. It makes sense to include the old stuff, but they could have bypassed them in place of newer, more popular shows. I'm glad they didn't.)

This morning I told the boys I wanted them to watch a show that I used to watch when I was little. Then I turned on "The Littles." Seven knew of them because he'd already read The Littles book, but was so excited to know that this was something we could share (it helped that I completely remembered every word to the intro song). Q. fell in love with the cute song and the eerie and adorable cute characters and their adventure.

We do put some strong limits on our kids' digital time. But a quickie cartoon on Saturday mornings with Jaroo.com is going to be a keeper, so long as they keep adding more "vintage" shows and keep the sponsored ads incredibly age appropriate to the show and limited in time (under 30 seconds).

Kudos to them for a nice site. Good stuff.

I've always enjoyed grocery shopping alone at a quiet, slow pace. Searching for the right ingredients. Scouring produce for perfect fruit and vegetables. Listening to the always dramatic 70s and 80s tunes that float across the aisles while I push my cart.

Shopping in the early morning is especially pleasant; the produce is fresh and the store is near empty. Plus I can be home in time to read the newspaper over coffee with the hubs while the boys are still in their jammies all cozy cute.

I do confess to one problem with my grocery shopping: I can easily stray from my shopping list when I spy something yummy. Also? I've never kept a really strong shopping list and have often come home only to return to the store later in the day because I've forgotten a few key ingredients. Clearly a habit that needed breaking.

Weekly meal planning has helped me change the habit of not buying food on a whim. But a neat, practical kitchen tool has made the real difference on my shopping and meal organization habits.

A few months a go I was at my friend Leslie's house and she had this cute Real Simple grocery shopping note pad on her refrigerator. I picked one up at Target for nine bucks, stuck it on the refrigerator and seriously? I am now an on-task shopper. The notepad is in checklist form with all the essential kitchen items listed (dairy, cheese, the usual veggie and fruit suspects) and open lines for you to jot down specifics.

I've had regular notepads on the refrigerator and have been pretty good about writing down items once they need replacing. But because this Real Simple checklist already is pre-populated with ingredients, it triggers my mind to think about what might be missing from the list. It just makes life a little easier. And I really stick to only buying what's on the list.

Also? My husband doesn't have to complain about my chicken scrawl when does the shopping. 

Whatever works.

My godparents, or compadres, visited almost every year from El Salvador. My godfather (padrino), Tio Ricardo, was my mom's brother, and his wife, my tia and godmother (madrina), is still alive.

With each visit, they would bring dulce de leche, queso seco, and other various foods from El Salvador. But because I was their godchild, I would always receive a small box with words of love and blessings etched on the top in Tia's writing.

Those boxes always contained beautiful, airy gold pieces of jewelry. Rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets. As I got older, they mixed in silver and gems, some of them custom made for me. I saved almost all of the boxes along with the jewelry -- the cases still maintain their distinct smell from my compadres home.

As my grandmother started to travel back and forth to El Salvador, she would also began bringing me little boxes of baubles as well.  The presentation of the gift was almost more wonderful than the gift itself, with grandma asking me to come in to her room and wait while she searched around her suitcase looking for that tiny box. She would open it slowly as I sat beside her wondering what treasure she was about to show me.

"Para ti," she would say, her hazel eyes twinkling with delight. "It's for you." I would squeal, hug her, and cover her rosy cheeks with kisses.

I learned to love jewelry because of my compadres and my grandmother. I rarely wore the jewelry when I was in high school and college; it seemed too mature, too fragile. Now, I wear each piece as much as I can.

Now, my mom carries the little box of jewelry tradition when she travels with my dad. She's fond of rings, and now so am I.

But gold hoop days are my favorite. The hoops in this photo were a gift from my Tia. I wear my hair loose, curls abound. Or taut and pulled back into a fierce pony tail with my burgundy specs.. Either way, I feel free, inspired, and writerly. I want to sit at coffee shops and scribble in my journal (as I was doing in this photo). Or go on a date with my husband and stare at him over sassy beverages.