Family

The Birds and the Bees

“Where do babies come from?” It’s that age-old question we parents often dread. Our family has been fielding variations on this inquiry for years now. We finally had the official ‘sex talk’ with all six kids whilst sitting around the kitchen table recently. Any child who watches a mother or family friend’s belly expand throughout …

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Three Gifts

There seems to be a general consensus here in the United States, and I suspect, most anywhere, that those of us who are parents want our children to have the opportunities we had, and then some. I came to ponder this again after a breakfast outing with a friend. We were discussing – not for …

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Re[focus]ing

The shadows of tall North Carolina pines flickered quickly past on my right. The morning was cold and crisp as we sped up I-95 northbound. A scene played in front of me in my mind’s eye. I saw our five year old dashing out into the Gulf of Mexico before I hardly had a chance …

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But “What If?”

Do you ever play the “What If” game? You settle down for the night and then, instead of sleeping, you parade a variety of scenarios through your head, working through some of the possible outcomes. Eventually you may start tweaking smaller variables. You might begin with thoughts of the upcoming private school enrollment, and work …

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From Survive to Thrive

See that happy-family-walking-through-a-field stock photo at the top of this post? That’s not us. That definitely wasn’t us by the time we hit mid-October this year. The beginning of the school year tends to start a little rough, and while we mostly found ourselves in a routine by October, two of the kids were struggling …

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Humor is Your Ally

This was the moment. The next hour of my sanity was hanging in the balance. I stared at our daughter, who lay slumped on the floor, glaring back at me. We were assessing each other, each analyzing what our next move would be. This moment was all about control. The vacuum lay beside her, quietly …

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The Family Nobody Wanted

“We Americans can’t keep one tenth of our population in an inferior position, just because their ancestors were once enslaved…and still be a healthy democracy. It isn’t Christian and it isn’t democratic, and most of us claim to be both.” – Carl Doss (Doss, 1954, p. 187-188) I read a delightful book recently, apparently somewhat …

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