If you had asked me five years ago what my plans were for a gorgeous spring afternoon - like the ones we've been having lately - my answer would have undoubtedly involved a nice patio and a cold beer. But these days, with two young boys constantly running around, I enjoy the warm weather in a completely different way.

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• What's beyond the screen?

One of my earliest childhood memories is of participating in peaceful demonstrations against Fidel Castro's regime with my mother. Once, we were even detained by the cops and taken to the police station. My mother was kept in jail for a few days while my younger brother and I were allowed to go home with our dad. (Yes, my mother was, and still is, a total badass.) So, when I found out there'd be a march and rally in Charlotte for immigration reform, I did not think twice about showing up with both my kids.

Before we had kids, Tony and I lived by the seat of our pants. We'd decide to go to a movie in the middle of the week five minutes before it started; throw house parties for no reason; find last minute flight deals and hop on planes to foreign countries just because we could. We were spontaneous and exciting and I liked it that way. If life got too predictable I became antsy and irritated, I was afraid that we would turn into my biggest fear: an old, boring couple.

Oh, how things have changed. I've realized that the answer to life with two young children is to keep a military-style schedule. If I have to run out at the last minute to buy an ingredient for that night's dinner or the baby skips his nap, we fall into a downward spiral of screaming children, ignored bedtimes, and irritated parents.

These days, there is nothing I find more comforting than routine.

• I've realized raising two children requires a military-style schedule.

Last year, during the height of the Trayvon Martin news cycle, I wrote a post in which I wondered if I should talk to my young son, Luki, about racism. Should I explain to him that, because of the color of his skin or his ethnic last name, he would have to tread extra carefully around certain people? Should I tell him that, regardless of his actions or intentions, he would always be perceived by some as a threat?

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I wondered these things for a while and then forgot about them as the Trayvon story stopped being front and center news. But on the year anniversary of his death, and then Martin Luther King Day, I was confronted with the issue again.

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There's a picture posted to Instagram of Chicago bishop Larry Trotter in the bathtub with his 4-year-old granddaughter that's been the subject of a heated debate on social media lately. I first saw it on a blog, and a few days later one of my friends posted it to Facebook - in both instances, the comments were overwhelmingly negative. Trotter was called a pervert and a pedophile, the girl's mother regarded as completely irresponsible, and some even suggested that Child Protective Services become involved. Personally, I think that Trotter's only sin is poor judgement for posting the picture to the Internet.

I can't say I'm surprised about the negative reaction the photo has received. There are a few pictures on my phone of Tony in the bath with our boys that I haven't posted online to avoid potential accusations of impropriety. But - and now I'm the one exhibiting poor judgement by declaring this to the Internet - generally speaking, I don't think it's wrong for a child to take a bath with a trusted adult family member. My kids do it all the time.

I didn't want to say anything before because of Murphy's Law of Children. You know, the law that says: Thou shall not brag about anything your children are doing lest you want them to immediately stop doing it. But it's been over a month now, so I think it's finally safe for me to announce from the bloggity mountaintops that:

MY BABY IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!

That's right! I am getting eight hours of sleep on the regular. There are no more 2 a.m. nursing sessions in my house. A 28-inch long human is no longer taking up all the space in my bed and relegating me to the furthest corner of my king sized mattress. I can fully enjoy an evening out (or in) without worrying about the baby waking up and cramping my style.

Life as a family of four is starting to fall into place.

A few weeks ago, I entered my son Luki into CMS's magnet lottery. I have been praying ever since, that he gets a spot in a pre-k classrooms at one of the magnet Montessori elementary schools. I want him to get into the program because having him in a public school as a 4 year old will save us tons of money on daycare, but also, and most importantly, because it would guarantee that he won't have to attend our neighborhood school.

You see, I've been doing some research on our neighborhood school, and it ain't pretty. Its students consistently perform below the CMS average in all subjects, and last year only 58 percent performed at or above grade level.

There's also another statistic I looked at that helped shape my opinion about the school. It's something I've struggled coming to terms with. It's even made me feel like a hypocrite.

I looked at the school's racial makeup. When I saw that less than 5 percent of the students are white, I considered it a red flag.

We traveled to Spain over the holidays with my mother. Here are 10 things I learned about traveling across the globe with two young children:

1. Line your pockets with candy before heading to the airport. You have no idea how many minutes of standing still in lines the promise of Skittles will buy you.

2. When your 3-year-old tells you he's "too tired" to keep walking the streets of Barcelona, don't carry him around. Instead, just challenge him to a race to your destination. All the energy he needs to keep on going is contained in the words "ready, set, go."

3. If both your children fall asleep in the middle of a guided city tour, don't ditch the rest of the tour and rush to the hotel hoping for a family nap...they'll both wake up before you get there and exhibit more energy than ever.

I don't even know where to begin. Ever since I heard about the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, I've been vacillating between anger and despair, relief and helplessness, heartbreak and confusion.

The image of neatly wrapped Christmas presents that will never be opened in Connecticut has made me shed actual tears. The thought of the victim's parents hearing the news and rushing to the school, scanning the crowd for their children, and realizing the unthinkable makes me sick to my stomach.

I'm pissed at our country's gun laws, at the religious zealots who are blaming this on the "systematic removal of God from our schools," at the way our society continually glorifies violence.

I keep staring at the TV, trying to understand why, even though I know that nothing a news reporter can say will help me make any sense out of it.

As a mom trying to raise honest, kind and caring children, there is no time of year more conflicting for me than Christmas.

Last year, I paid Target $30 for The Elf on the Shelf so that I could orchestrate an elaborate lie for Luki. I explained that an elf had arrived at our home from the North Pole - sent by Mr. Claus himself - to watch over him.

"Every night, he flies back to the North Pole and tells Santa if you've been naughty or nice," I told him. "He comes back really early in the morning and sits in a different place each day. You have to find him when you wake up."

We named our elf Juanillo and when he returned this year on Thanksgiving Day, Luki was ecstatic. Ever since, Tony or I move Juanillo to a different location each night and watch Luki's delight in finding him every morning.

I love to watch my son's excitement around Juanillo, but there's a little part of me that can't quite get over the fact that I'm straight up lying to my child.