Guest Blogger
Lisa Holcomb
Lisa is co-founder of Build A Menu, an online menu planning website that helps families get their grocery bill under control and helps them to bring “dinner back to the table”. She is known as the "Queen of Meal Time Makeovers". She is an advocate for family nutrition, savvy grocery shopping and family dinners.
Lisa is a published writer and speaker and has a bachelor of science in Child and Family Development. She is a strong advocate for family meal time, having spent many hours researching the positive effects and benefits of families that eat meals together as well as the negative effects not eating together as a family can have on children and teens.
She and her husband Will, have six children (her oldest two children are married and have babies of their own) and live near Austin, Texas with their four boys ages 9-19. She and Will adopted their youngest two boys through the Texas foster care system. Because adoption is so important to them, Build A Menu gives a portion of all its proceeds to adoption care ministries from around the world.
Lisa often finds that living in a house full of boys means she’d better be ahead of the game when it comes to planning dinner since they’re almost always hungry! They are quite happy to be one of Build A Menu’s test kitchens.
For more from Lisa Holcomb:
Facebook: BuildAMenu
Twitter: @buildamenu
Beat the After-School Hunger
Your kids hit the front door after school and what is the first thing out of their mouths? “I’m starving!” And it’s said with enough enthusiasm that you would think they hadn’t eaten all day. They want food and they want it fast. As tempting as it might be to shove a cookie in their [...]
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Avoiding the Lunch Box Blues
If you have school age children, then you probably know all about the smashed banana or sandwich in the bottom of the lunch sack. It doesn’t take long before kids start to get tired of the same old thing. Not to mention, if you were to take a peek into many children’s lunch bags, you [...]
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Rise and Shine for Breakfast Time
We all know they say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? Then why are approximately 8-12 percent of school age children skipping breakfast? By the time kids hit their teens, as many as 20-30 percent are skipping breakfast. Why exactly is it so important that kids (and adults as well) [...]
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Nutrition and School Performance: Does it Really Matter?
Back to school season can be a struggle for many parents. Trying to make sure that our kids get healthy meals and snacks throughout the day can seem almost overwhelming. Why is it so important? Well, what our kids are taking into their bodies has a direct effect on their school performance. Studies show that [...]
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5 Tips for Meal Planning During the School Year
For most of us, school has either started back up again or will be starting in the next few days. That means evening homework, sports activities, band activities, etc. You know, all the things that go along with school starting back that can make our lives so hectic. How do we maintain some sort of [...]
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Transracial Adoptions: Blending the Family Color
What is transracial or transcultural adoption? In a nutshell, it’s the placement of a child from one culture or ethnic group with adoptive parents of a differing culture or ethnic group. My family and I know first-hand what this experience is like. For us, it’s a wonderful and enriching experience. Of our six children, our [...]
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Older Children Adoptions
Have you heard the saying “parenting isn’t for wimps?” Well, that’s especially true for parenting a child that you’ve adopted as an older child. Older child adoption brings on a whole set of challenges that infant adoption doesn’t. Older children come with a history, personalities, anger and hurt over what has happened to them and [...]
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Adopting from Foster Care
Parents who want to adopt have to make choices. Infant or older child, domestic or international, private or foster care are among many decisions they have to make and each is a very personal decision. My husband and I decided to adopt domestically through the foster care system. Since then, I’ve heard lots of reasons [...]
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Adoption: When the Honeymoon Period is Over
Have you heard of the “honeymoon period” that often comes along with adopting an older child? It’s the time when the child is first placed in the new home and things can seem “good” and peaceful. For each family, the honeymoon period is different and can last for different lengths of time. For my family, [...]
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So You’re Thinking About Adopting?
You’re thinking about adopting but not sure if you are really ready. First, I’d advise you to ask yourself why you want to adopt. There are many different reasons that parents decide they want to adopt and couples looking at adopting need to really take a good look at why THEY want to adopt. As [...]
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