This blog exists primarily as a place to ask and answer questions, especially from one mother to another (though questions from anyone are welcome!). You can read questions and answers that have already been posted by clicking on the relevant category at the top of each page, or by using the search tool on the right. (Some pages don’t have any content yet–but they will if you ask something.)
I love to hear from you! The best way to contact me is by e-mail at cablackwood(at)yahoo.com or by submitting a comment on the form below (or at the end of any post). I’m happy to chat by phone if you like (just send me a note first). If you have a question, I may post my reply on this blog but with your first name only (confidentiality is important to me: I will change your name if you prefer).
Please don’t hesitate to write–because this blog is for you!
With warm wishes,
Catherine
thebestofmum 
Blessings, Cathy! So glad to be able to read the treasures of your mother’s heart. Love Allie
Catherine, Just learned of your site today. Fun to follow as a peer and friend; wish I’d had this type of advice before my boys reached six foot in height! Love, JoAnn
Hello! My husband and i have spent a bit of time getting to know your son and daughter-in-law, Steven and Nicole, and they shared with me your blog. We have four children, ages 8, 6, 4, and 10 months, and I have a question about sibling bickering. As in, how do I get it to stop!?!?!? 🙂 actually, particularly, my son (6) and my 4 year old daughter…He has a difficult time really liking his sister, it seems. I don’t know if it is because she is the one who followed him first, and so he feels she challenges his place, or really what it is…how to correct and discipline a need to brag about something he got to do and she didn’t, or the constant correcting of her stories, or the frankness with which he insists on commenting: “that joke wasn’t funny,” or some such other comment… Ugh!