Louise Julig

Cupcake Love Family Dining Review in San Diego Family

   Just in time for Valentine's Day, this month's San Diego Family Magazine features a Family Dining review of the Solana Beach cupcake shop Cupcake Love that features a dozen different flavors of gourmet cupcakes every week. This piece is extra special to me because I co-wrote it with my daughter, who is in sixth grade now and turning into quite a writer herself. (She also helped me pick out the cupcakes - and eat them!) So if you're looking for something to get for your sweetie, maybe a Love Bite from Cupcake Love will be just the thing. 

 Click here for the review in the online version of the February San Diego Family Magazine.

San Diego Family Out & About Guide: San Diego Coastal section

Every year San Diego Family Magazine publishes Out & About, a free "family adventure guide to San Diego County" and this year I contributed the San Diego Coastal entries, covering the coastal communities of La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Mission Bay, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach and Point Loma. My family and I spent many fun summer weekends on "staycation" scouting out the best family-friendly opportunities right here in our back yard. Find out how to book a kayak tour of La Jolla, where to find a mini regatta at Mission Bay, and the site of the biggest "teddy bear" you've ever seen (180 tons), on the UCSD campus, not to mention a selection of unique, kid-friendly eateries in each community. The guide is available at select locations around San Diego County or online. 

Click here for the San Diego Coastal entries, Page 30-38, online.

"Starting The Conversation: Talking with your parents about their future care" in Western NY Family Magazine

This article in the 7th Annual Eldercare guide in the March issue of Western New York Family Magazine is close to my heart as it was prompted by our own extended family starting to talk about my parents' future care as they age. It can be a difficult topic for families to discuss, even if your parents have started to make some plans for their later years. In the article I talk about why it's important to start the discussion early, and some ways to take those first steps. There is also a sidebar highlighting some wonderful information in the PBS web site and DVD "Caring For Your Parents," which grew out of the book Caring for Your Parents: The Complete Family Guide (AARP) by Elinor Ginzler and Hugh Delehanty. 

I used a new technique to solicit personal stories for this piece, which was the use of the Polls feature in the professional social networking site LinkedIn. My experience using this tool was picked up by communications blogger Heidi Sullivan and posted along with other writers' experiences in using new networking tools to find sources. I am grateful to everyone who shared their stories with me—I was only able to use a fraction of the material I received, but this topic is so rich that I foresee future articles that will draw from the same material. 

Download "Starting the Conversation" (PDF, 244K)

Milestone Birthdays for Moms in Western NY Family

This month a reprint of my article "Milestone Birthdays for Moms" appears in Western New York Family Magazine, and online at their newly launched web site in an online flip-the-page digital edition with embedded links. It's pretty cool looking, and since archived editions are saved on the web site, you can go back and look at previous issues long after they've left the newsstands. The article was originally published in San Diego Family Magazine.

The piece is available in digital format online. Click here for Western New York Family Magazine, select "Click Below for Our Digital Edition," then find the January '09 issue from the Archives button on the top left corner and go to page 23.

National Game Week - What's your favorite?

Besides being Thanksgiving week, the official start of the Christmas season, and the week of break even hopes for retail stores on Black Friday, it's also National Game Week, as I recently learned from the Our World, Your Kids blog. One of the simple pleasures in our family life lately is to sit down together and play a game. We've pulled out some of the classic card games like Old Maid and Hearts, discovered some new board games such as the American Girl Treasures Game (surprisingly well designed, requiring a good deal of strategy), and even resurrected my husband's childhood version of Trouble (c'mon, who doesn't love the Pop-O-Matic?) We also recently acquired a genuine home-grown board game, the 'Ohana Mana Adventure Game, developed by Oceanside family business Akamai Games. Kind of like a souped-up Island-style Sorry, 'Ohana Mana (translation "family spiritual energy") will  get your own 'ohana learnin' all sorts of local 'kine factoids about Hawaiian culture while making their way to the crater in safety, spreading aloha along the way (but don't step in the kapu!) This Thanksgiving, my wish for you and your family is a day of respite from outside pressures, to simply enjoy being in the company of ones you love. And if your family, like mine, shows its love through trouncing each other in merciless rounds of Uno, all the better.

New Parenting Blog

The editor of Western New York Family Magazine, which has published several of my articles, has started a new parenting blog, Our World, Your Kids, informed by her experience in both the parenting publication world and her own family as a mom and now, new grandmother. It looks to be a good balance between facts and figures balanced by personal and informed opinion. Check it out and let me (and her!) know what you think.

Make A Wish: A Foundation of Dreams Coming True for San Diego Kids—in San Diego Family

I had the privilege to interview three kids whose lives were touched by the San Diego Make-A-Wish Foundation for this article that ran in December 2005 in San Diego Family Magazine. One child had wished to see the Mayan Temples (see photo), another teenager had wished for her own horse, and a third wanted to take her family to meet the Pope. The Make A Wish foundation truly does some wonderful work and I learned more about the care they take to work with children and families to provide experiences that will not only be memorable, but life-affirming. 

Download Make-A-Wish (PDF, 1.7M)