Giving New Meaning to Parenting

One of the toughest things for me as an adult has been to set boundaries.  Whether it’s preserving some sense of privacy  (Yes, I am finally allowed to take a bath without a parade of children coming through…) or setting boundaries and rules for the kids, or even with friends, deciding when something is a-okay [...]

What do you stand for?  What does your family stand for?  If you had to draft a mission statement or a purpose, what would it be?
Calvin Trillin wrote a great book a number of years ago entitled Family Man (I highly recommend the audio book- I listened so much I wore out the cassette tapes) [...]

Time, they say, heals all wounds. While I don’t think this applies for every situation I do know that there is some truth to the statement. Five years ago we brought our daughters home from the hospital on Thanksgiving day. They had been born premature at 30 weeks gestation (which is 10 weeks too soon). [...]

Sometimes I wonder whether my working full time will have had an impact on the amount of time that my children will remember having spent with me. Being one of those overachieving parents, I am often too hard on myself about whether I am reaching my parenting goals.
Then there are those times that remind [...]

It’s been happening for years now. As soon as Halloween decorations start to find their way to store shelves, so does Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa decor. Last week I went shopping and noticed all of the Thanksgiving items were already marked down 60 percent.
I purchased a few new Thanksgiving decorations and saved about $35.
When I was a [...]

Veteran’s Day is drawing down.  Before it officially closes, I’d like to offer thanks to the fathers and sons and grandfathers, the mothers and daughters and grandmothers who promised to protect the land we walk on and the freedoms we so often take for granted.  Thanks to those who are here,  those who are over [...]

Before we had children we would spend Thanksgiving with one set of relatives and Christmas with the other. We would switch each year so that no one family had Christmas all the time. When my mom lived in AZ she was able to easily join us for all holidays as were my in-laws. This will [...]

I’ll be the first to admit that I was nervous about my mom’s recent visit. This is the first time she has been in my house as a true guest in about 3 years. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would she be pleasant or rude? Would she make an effort to hang out with [...]

It’s not my kids who are spoiled, but my husband and I. On Tuesday we took our daughters to Disneyland for their birthday. They enjoyed every minute of it and so did we. We had been to Disneyland before, but they were much more prepared for this visit. They knew which rides they wanted to [...]

By the time this post reaches the internet, it will be the week of my Dad’s birthday. He’d have been 65. He died when he was only 50, and I was only 26. My Dad never saw me get married, or met my children, or did so many things that I wish [...]