Recent Posts By Kristin Brandt

I don’t know what’s more interesting about the sudden popularity of the Shades of Grey trilogy – that the self-published e-book series is taking the world by storm, or that everyone seems surprised women like to read what I often refer to on Manic Mommies as “smut.” For those unfamiliar, 50 Shades of Grey is the first in a series […]

Back in October, I wrote about an expensive lesson that my son and husband learned through Wizard101, a massively multiplayer online role-playing fantasy game. (Think Dungeons and Dragons without the multisided dice or workbooks). Months later, my son continues to be obsessed with the game, despite my efforts to distract him. He has spent hours learning new spells, completing missions, […]

Our 6-year old daughter has been begging me to redecorate her room. After a year of asking me if I could change her wall color from bright green to pink, a request I continue to deny because I hate painting and I love the color of her walls, she finally realized that she might have more success with a request […]

This weekend my husband and I brought our children to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston. While I was excited about the opportunity to check out the museum, my husband was less than optimistic about how our visit was going to go. Turns out, his skepticism was well founded. Entering the gallery, which is showing an exhibit called […]

As I write this,  I’m on the third week of battling a nasty head cold that just decided to return for an encore performance in my sinus cavities. And, if reports from clients, friends and neighbors are to be believed, I’m not alone. While I often tell members of the staff at my agency that they should stay home when […]

Last night our 6 year old daughter came to me with a request – she wants to have her ears pierced. She begged. She pleaded. She told me about all the friends who had pierced ears. But ultimately, she went away unsatisfied with my answer . . . she can have her ears pierced when she’s 13. That’s when I […]

This past Christmas, my family collectively acquired 4,074 Lego bricks through gifts given to my 9-year old son, 39-year old husband and 6-year old daughter, so you could say we are a Lego-loving family. Which may also be why I’ve been asked, on a couple of occasions, what I think about the new Legos for girls, Lego Friends. I will […]

As readers know, I recently took on the role of Girl Scout leader for my daughter’s Daisy troop. Each week, one parent takes responsibility for helping the girls earn a patch by running an activity – this week was my turn to help the girls as they worked to earn the yellow “Helpful and Friendly” petal. In addition to talking […]

When my husband and I had children, I found myself craving holiday traditions but found that we didn’t have many. In particular we didn’t have any foods (other than clam chowder from Captain Marden’s, heated and served each year right before going to Christmas Eve service), that spoke to our cultural heritage or felt particularly traditional. Despite the fact that […]

Sometime before January 15th, I have to make a decision – whether or not to renew my subscription to Amazon Prime. For those not familiar, Amazon Prime is a membership program that, to quote the web site, “gives you and your family unlimited fast shipping, such as FREE Two-Day shipping and One-day shipping for $3.99 per item on all eligible purchases […]