Giving New Meaning to Parenting

Someone I was great friends with in high school but hadn’t seen for over 25 years recently moved a few miles away from me.  We’ve gotten a chance to reconnect and resume a friendship that was rooted in a small high school (there were 40 kids in my graduating class) and it’s been a really [...]

There is a TV show called Hoarders. I’ve only seen it a few times, but the fact that people cannot get rid of their “old” stuff, even spoiled food, fascinates me. I would probably be the opposite of a hoarder, a minimalist. So, I struggle with what items of my daughters I should keep or [...]

As I took down the Christmas tree today, I followed my normal routine of laying all the ornaments on the table and then carefully wrapping them one by one as I checked off a list. One of the eleven-year-old boys came by and asked me what on earth I was doing.
When I explained [...]

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). [...]

Every fall since the kids were small, we’ve been taking my Mom and Step Dad on our family vacation to Walt Disney World. We go in the fall for various reasons: cooler temperatures, less crowds, and since my husband and I work for the Federal Government, October is the only slow month for us at [...]

I started a new photo-centric blog a few weeks ago and it’s been fun for me. I try to post pictures of things and people that I find beautiful. It’s a good reminder not to get too caught up in the details. I participate in a weekly photo challenge that allows me [...]

Grandma is wandering around the house today, picking up bits of stuff left behind after the six-year-old’s ten day visit. A tiny china plate. A yellow marker. A half-used ball of green and white yarn. There are also a multitude of sticky fingerprints on the glass topped table and the patio [...]

I went to visit my Mom recently – I can’t say “home” because while I grew up in the same town, my Mom now lives somewhere else other than in the house where I grew up, and somehow, this has made my house my home now, more than ever before.
Anyway, being back in [...]

The book mentioned here is arguably my favorite children’s book of all time. You should give it as a shower gift.
But that’s not what I’m writing about here.
Babies really are everywhere these days. I hear the news of morning sickness and heartburn. Of due dates and birth plans. I see photos [...]

I worry sometimes about the stories the Punks will carry as they pack their bags for adulthood and leave their childhood. Will these novels be punctuated by memories of frustrated tones of voice, privileges lost, and vacations not taken? Will they remember disappointment?
For a worrier, it’s worrisome.
I mentioned this to my mother a couple [...]