Tag: Parenting

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Merry Christmas Eve Eve – the longest day of the year!

sugary things

Merry Christmas Eve Eve – the longest day of the year – especially if you are a parent!

It’s December 23, and if you are a parent, today is – without a doubt – the longest day of the year. I remember my brood of four bouncing off the walls on “Christmas Eve Eve.” Every. Single. Year.

I’d try my best to keep them occupied by decorating cookies or have them cleaning their rooms… yes, they had to make room for the anticipated new gifts. Whatever works! Or, if the weather was good, I’d send them outside to wear themselves out playing in the snow.

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Thanks by accident

wpid-20150515_094210-1.jpg“This year, I am going to blog a funny story for Thanksgiving instead of the usual “I am grateful for…” I told my husband. And I got busy typing and editing a memorable family story. To share a funny accident.

But then life happened, and I wasn’t in a laughing mood.

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Adjusting to fall

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“Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.”
― Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s

I caught a glimpse of her from across the way. She stopped to check her phone, not knowing where we were.

It was orientation day at the campus, and she had been sequestered from us for a few hours. At this point in the day, she had chosen her classes for the year, wandered around her new home-away-from-home with a group of fellow incoming freshman, had enjoyed lunch at one of the campus eateries and was probably ready for a nap.

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The Next Chapter

wpid-20150519_164254.jpg“Every story has an end, but in life every end is a new beginning.” Dakota Fanning

“I don’t think I am handling this very well,” I admitted to my husband.

It all started last week. I went to the high school to pick our daughter up from an event. Since she and her friends began driving, I haven’t had to retrieve her from school very often. As I turned into the parking lot, tears welled up in my eyes.

This was one of the last times I would be at this school. With the exception of one more concert, that is it. She is our last to graduate. Twenty-five years of children in school and it is over.

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Life is a full circle

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Life is a circle

“There are patterns which emerge in one’s life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme.” – Jacqueline Carey

Isn’t it funny how life is a full circle?

I remember it so clearly, though it was almost 32 years ago. We had just gotten married, and my husband and I loaded up my not-so-cool 1980 Mustang (a sorry excuse for a “hot” set of wheels… it was the model year when one could buy a four-cylinder, fuel-efficient, nothing-under-the-hood quasi-sports car).  We were heading from Michigan to Arizona, where we’d spend a few months while my husband was in school. I was pretty excited as we set off on our new adventure. Of course there were no cell phones, GPS or any other technological conveniences that we are accustomed to having when traveling today. We tossed the bags in the trunk, grabbed the maps, said our teary goodbyes and we were on our way.

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Embrace the change

wpid-20150501_121105.jpgChildhood is a short season. – Helen Hayes

It is hard to believe that our youngest child graduates from high school this month.

For 25 years, we have ushered children out the door, snapping photos of the first day of school, chaperoning field trips and asking, “do you have homework?” Twenty-five years of concerts, conferences and sporting events. Each fall I would get writer’s cramp from filling out sets of emergency contact cards and writing dates on the calendar. Two and a half decades of sticker shock from back-to-school clothes and supplies.

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Slang used today and words I should not say

wpid-2014-11-14-13.02.19.jpg.jpeg“Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.” – Carl Sandburg

As a writer and an avid reader, I find words and language usage fascinating. Just call me a word nerd. Admittedly, as I have entered the digital age, I find myself being a little more lax in language and grammar rules. Some of my participles dangle, and sometimes I end sentences with a preposition and I often find myself starting sentences with “and” or “but.”

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Happy birthday to the best mom ever!

Flower arrangement“Happy birthday to the best mom, ever!”

I remember writing those words on her birthday cards years ago. I am thrilled to be able to do so today.

Today is my mom’s 75th birthday.

Oddly enough, as I was having my morning coffee, I came across this quiz. And, as most of you know, I am addicted to taking these dang things. Being that it is my mom’s birthday, I just had to know – How Similar Are You to Your Mom?

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Why I cried on Mother’s Day

cardI feel rather silly admitting this, but this morning when I woke up, I cried on Mother’s Day.

It really hit me how life has changed.

I cried because I am missing my dad, even more with each passing year. I missed the excitement of being a kid on a holiday, all excited to go see relatives that I thought would live forever. Then, I cried because I missed my grandmothers, great-grandmothers and my great-aunts.  Continue reading “Why I cried on Mother’s Day”

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When minutes add up to years

 “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.” – Albert Einstein

Doing my “bicycle exercises” is definitely helping the health of my legs; the same legs that now feel like rubber. The burn in my muscles lets me know I am making progress. The other day, from my vantage point on the floor, I was certain I had been peddling away for hours. Laying on my exercise mat, I glanced over at the clock. Surely I had made progress, and was inching to the two-minute mark.

Nope. I hadn’t even completed one minute of peddling. Continue reading “When minutes add up to years”