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Rally Your Parenting Village, Now.

Our view from quarantine in Auckland, New Zealand

Jul 28 2022

So. It’s been awhile. Not for lack of inspirational writing material (there’s been plenty), or because our family has had COVID (we’ve had it, but it was mild, thankfully), or because my site crashed (it hasn’t). Full disclosure, I haven’t posted because of my addiction to double-spacing after end punctuation, which I hear is way passe because we no longer use typewriters. But I simply cannot commit myself to unlearning the only thing I could do consistently well in my high school typing class. Oh, and because my family recently moved to New Zealand. One of these “excuses” is actually…

Losing a pet and how we teach our kids about loss

Aug 02 2016

We have the worst luck with pets. Dog number one. We had to give her up because she kept running away. Dog number two. Became food aggressive with kid vomit and bit my husband. We had to surrender him to the humane society. Lizard. My son caught “Lizzy” in our yard and designed a lovely terrarium for the randomly-assigned “her.” She lived her life span adored, sunning herself under her own heat lamp and feasting on bits of banana. My son was devastated when she died. Dwarf hamster. Our most recent, and possibly cutest, pet. She loved corn and green beans…

Jul 01 2016

When it’s a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence, I just have to share. Getting all three of my kids to agree to anything at the same time and in the same place is practically a miracle. As my mother-in-law has observed, not just with her own grandkids but in other families as well: one child is always unhappy. Not this time. And the task involved actual work. A request. And since the reward wasn’t a lego set (note: it never is)…well, I still can’t believe this project went 3-for-3.

Jun 16 2016

I completed a half marathon last weekend and this time, I crossed the finish line under my own power (my first “half” didn’t go nearly as well…but that’s another story). Along the way I was relieved to find a port-a-potty a) because I really had to go and this meant b) I was actually well-hydrated for this run through our high-altitude, arid climate. After taking care of business, I was startled to see a man sitting by the side of the road near the portable stall. I hadn’t seen him before so I felt a little creeped out, especially as…

May 03 2016

This week’s post was supposed to be about how to help our kids learn to be more organized but that’s just not going to happen. Sometimes life takes us on a detour from from our best-laid plans. As I switched gears on what to write this week, I realized it’s still about organization but in a different vein. The good news? It doesn’t require a visit to The Container Store. The bad news? It’s about bad news. Sadly, it’s inevitable. But that’s the very reason we don’t want to think about a family member getting sick. As in: it’s going…

Apr 19 2016

Wet sand flung at our stucco. Mud tracked through our play room. A soccer ball (intentionallly) pulverizing my son’s lego creations. And an unmistakable defiance for the adult in charge. So how do you tell parents their kid is a brat?

Mar 30 2016

Creativity: putting things together in novel ways, or seeing the world, or a given problem, with fresh eyes. (ahaparenting.com) “Oh, my, he’s such a mess!!” Grandma could barely get the words out through her laughter. Her loving observation of my older son at age three was spot on. There he was, sitting at our kitchen table working on crafts: stuff was piled everywhere, stuck together randomly with glue from a dripping bottle. His clothes were streaked with food (oddly, even now, breakfast is on his person before he’s even had any), his face mustachioed with lunch. The perfect picture of a…

Don't overdo it. Consider how AP courseload fits in with an already busy schedule.

Mar 22 2016

March Madness!!!! I never realized how zany a month March is. I mean, take a look: ~Will March arrive like a lamb or a lion? Wait. No one really cares that much about that anymore, do they? ~NCAA basketball, the ultimate in cager mania. Go Skyhawks!!! (Fort Lewis College, NCAA II tourney, in case you b-ball enthusiasts were curious.) Wait. They lost. Darn. Well, there’s always next year… ~The beginning of daylight savings time! More sunlight after dinner! Wait. Actually, who likes “spring ahead?” I was so tired I accidentally made decaf the morning after. Not. Good. Anyway, what seems…

Feb 02 2016

Super Bowl 50 is just around the corner, which only means one thing. Well, two. The first being if your adoptive home is Colorado, and your son’s new favorite team is the Denver Broncos, then you are thrilled. And the second is all those original, entertaining commercials, which for many (myself included) are the reason to tune into the game. So anticipated are these ads, they seem to get at least as much post-game chatter as the game itself. Which is interesting because apparently my generation (X) is a pretty jaded bunch. As in, more resistant to the influence of…

Jan 19 2016

Forget your troubles, come on get happy You better chase all your cares away Shout Hallelujah, come on get happy ~from the song Get Happy by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, performed by Judy Garland in Summer Stock (1950) If you smile, you will feel happy. There are some pretty fun studies out there to help support this. Just try it yourself. Smile, and you start to feel exactly what the upturned corners of your mouth show. But is feeling happy the same as being happy?

Tag - parenting

Rally Your Parenting Village, Now.

When a Pet Dies

Hate to Pack? Try This “Hack.”

A Little Potty Talk

When a Loved One is Seriously Ill

Someone Else’s Bratty Kid

Nurturing Creativity in Our Children: More Mess, More Time

Standardized Testing: a Primer

Hooray for Super Bowl Commercials…But Should Our Kids Watch Them?

The Happiness Project