I’m a children’s and travel book author,  journalist and a semi-professional Mum living on a shoestring budget in BRUSSELS, Belgium – the capital of Europe — for the past decade now, but my kids and I have enough stamps in our passports to rival a State Department official.

My children and I have a very romantic view of our adventures.  I also do dishes and windows, but only when I really, really have to.   Welcome.

How did you become so passionate about travel?

To be honest, I had a miserable childhood growing up, marked by the tragic loss of a sibling.  But the travel bug bit me in college and opened my eyes to the wonders of the world. I fell in love with the experiences, the different cultures, and the freedom that traveling brought to me.  And this adventure is still going strong.

Let’s see: Don’t you love the folks over at Babble?

Babble.com: HOW WE LIVE: A children’s book publisher’s fairytale Belgian home.

 

But my everyday life is more like this…

Yet the real fun started ( loosely translated as: When I could laugh all the way to the bank… ) when Random House bought my Urban Crayon Paris book. 

( FYI: I spent 2 FULL years writing the Paris book.  Whew.  The kids and I hiked it over to Paris at least  60 times, dear friends.  Whew, again!  I drank lots of coffee and the kids ate lots of croissants.  I also wrote travel books about brillaint cities like  New York, San Francisco, and Delhi, too.  )

 Then I started traveling around Europe doing lots of fun stuff like this:

NBC News:  Magritte Museum a big-time hit for little ones

NBC News: Casting Call  Family vacation turns mother-daughter duo into fashion models

NBC News: Paris in the Springtime with kids

And then the best-ever parenting magazine in LONDON by the name of  JUNIOR magazine ran this huge review of the Paris book. Click here for the real deal information.

But this profile would be way, way more interesting to read right now, if you ask me – Awesome Castles, Cottages, Farmhouses and Other Fun Places to Stay in Europe with Kids   Click here for the immediate jump.

Or take a peak at our  2012 LONDON Olympic adventure travel with Click on  Fans Visiting From Afar : or click   Fans Visiting from Afar |  Photos  because this one includes photos of us in Istanbul…

What else can readers expect to learn from your postings?

Really.  You want to know more…

When it comes to travel, I speak “bargain,” no matter what language it comes in.  

It is really rad living here in Belgium…

My work has appeared in the following: The Wall Street Journal Europe, TIME, MSNBC.com, The South China Morning Post, CBS News and few other international publications.  And in my younger days I worked for W magazine, a Conde Nast publication.  

I grew up on 900-acre apple orchard in upstate New York.  And I can’t eat apples anymore — it is like trying to find a way to boil the ocean if you ask me.   However  I can bake a superb apple pie.  Then my family got darn tired of all the farming and moved to sunny Florida  where everyone drinks lots of orange juice.  And guess what?  I love drinking orange juice.

I  graduated magna cum laude from New York University.

Let’s see: I’ll be writing about traveling around Europe with my kids in tow.  My children and I have been fortunate to travel on assignments to a variety of places: For instance, we went to the geographical North Pole in search of Santa Claus, discovered the best playgrounds Paris has to offer, went swimming in Iceland’s Blue Lagoon, and played around on the beaches of Mauritius.

By trade I’ve penned a few children’s and travel books to my name but I’m thrilled beyond therapy these days to play around with photography.

Oh, so what?  You were lucky enough to travel around the world but where is the man in your life? REPLY: Ouch. Check out the next issue of Parenting.com  Click here (  Release date:  May 2013)

However I really admire the Passports with Purpose program.  Click here for more details.

Oh, darn it.  I’m suppose to brag a lot more, so I’ll start digging around in computer land to find some fun stuff to share with you.