I’ve had two unexpected conversations recently that have given me pause for reflection. The first was with my father-in-law while dining over Mexican food in Kansas. While catching him up with our kids’ lives, he asked me if they were dating anyone of note. I told him that at the moment there were no significant others. Then, the bolt out of the blue,”Oh, you must be sad that you won’t be having grandchildren anytime soon.”
The next exchange was with my daughters, The Piglet and Decibel.
“All of our friends’ mothers are on crazy grandma patrol. How come you aren’t nagging us about having babies?”
It started out as gentle teasing, but… CONTINUE READING >>
I’ve had two unexpected conversations recently that have given me pause for reflection. The first was with my father-in-law while dining over Mexican food in Kansas. While catching him up with our kids’ lives, he asked me if they were dating anyone of note. I told him that at the moment there were no significant others. Then, the bolt out of the blue,”Oh, you must be sad that you won’t be having grandchildren anytime soon.”
The next exchange was with my daughters, The Piglet and Decibel.
“All of our friends’ mothers are on crazy grandma patrol. How come you aren’t nagging us about having babies?”
It started out as gentle teasing, but… CONTINUE READING >>
Our main goal as parents was to end up with happy, healthy, self-sufficient adults.
We can’t tell anyone how to do this — everyone’s different and Lord knows we made our share of mistakes along the way — but we can offer an insight that we’ve gained through our own offspring’s transitions from childhood to adulthood.
Don’t give kids everything they want, just everything they need.
A whole lot of what they want is stupid crap and… CONTINUE READING >>
Our main goal as parents was to end up with happy, healthy, self-sufficient adults.
We can’t tell anyone how to do this — everyone’s different and Lord knows we made our share of mistakes along the way — but we can offer an insight that we’ve gained through our own offspring’s transitions from childhood to adulthood.
Don’t give kids everything they want, just everything they need.
A whole lot of what they want is stupid crap and… CONTINUE READING >>
Every family has ’em.
Piles of throw-away snapshots that you can’t bear to throw away. Before digital cameras, our generation put every picture — no matter how bad — into a photo album. After all, they were precious – and we shelled out big bucks to have them developed.
Then there are the CLASSICS. The ones you should have thrown away, but instead you frame them. This one is ours.
Think about it, we thought we were sitting for a lovely family portrait. Clearly, all heck is breaking loose and none of us could… CONTINUE READING >>
Every family has ’em.
Piles of throw-away snapshots that you can’t bear to throw away. Before digital cameras, our generation put every picture — no matter how bad — into a photo album. After all, they were precious – and we shelled out big bucks to have them developed.
Then there are the CLASSICS. The ones you should have thrown away, but instead you frame them. This one is ours.
Think about it, we thought we were sitting for a lovely family portrait. Clearly, all heck is breaking loose and none of us could… CONTINUE READING >>
The last task of raising a child is letting them go.
Allowing them to flap their cute little wings and fly… giving them a gentle nudge out of the nest to get them airborne.
OK, sometimes it’s more like a hard shove off a cliff… but then the harder transition from the parent-child to an adult-to-adult relationship must be made.
This process doesn’t happen overnight… CONTINUE READING >>
The last task of raising a child is letting them go.
Allowing them to flap their cute little wings and fly… giving them a gentle nudge out of the nest to get them airborne.
OK, sometimes it’s more like a hard shove off a cliff… but then the harder transition from the parent-child to an adult-to-adult relationship must be made.
This process doesn’t happen overnight… CONTINUE READING >>
As a young woman, I never imagined I’d move to France. I had no girlhood obsession with Paris, no special feelings for French culture, no Eiffel Tower prints in my college dorm room. I didn’t even like cheese…. CONTINUE READING >>
As a young woman, I never imagined I’d move to France. I had no girlhood obsession with Paris, no special feelings for French culture, no Eiffel Tower prints in my college dorm room. I didn’t even like cheese…. CONTINUE READING >>
“Graduation speeches were invented largely in the belief that college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.” – Garry TrudeauBetween our brood of three and my brother’s trio we have six kids within a ten year age span. That used to mean some hilarious… CONTINUE READING >>
“Graduation speeches were invented largely in the belief that college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.” – Garry Trudeau
Between our brood of three and my brother’s trio we have six kids within a ten year age span. That used to mean some hilarious… CONTINUE READING >>
So how do committed boat people end up in an RV? Easy. On a spur of the moment whim.
Since we headed off into GypsyNester territory, BAMF has taken us to thirty-four states, three Canadian provinces, fourteen National Parks and a beautiful seaside town in Mexico. It was an amazing journey. We had no idea what we were doing, but we sure learned a lot, so we’d like to share some of what we discovered along the… CONTINUE READING >>
So how do committed boat people end up in an RV? Easy. On a spur of the moment whim.
Since we headed off into GypsyNester territory, BAMF has taken us to thirty-four states, three Canadian provinces, fourteen National Parks and a beautiful seaside town in Mexico. It was an amazing journey. We had no idea what we were doing, but we sure learned a lot, so we’d like to share some of what we discovered along the… CONTINUE READING >>
