Archive - January 2019

It was a why didn’t I think of this before? moment. My husband and I have had our kids for over a decade now, and it didn’t occur to me until a couple months ago to actually be prepared for cold and flu season. Instead of a rushed trip to the grocery store for soup and Powerade, why not have a stash ready to go in case of fever, runny nose or vomiting? This viral season I’ve been especially grateful to be prepared. First there was my husband’s bad luck with bad eggnog (not a virus but it sure acted…

I remember in college a particular room down the hall from mine. The two girls living there used what I’ll call the Floor Organizational System for everything and I mean for everything, they owned. It was impressive. I often wondered what lurked beneath the jumbled layer of wrinkled clothes that floated like an oil spill on the ocean. I held the opposite, more retentive perspective on organization, preferring a fully visible floor in case of a wasp attack. Then I could drop my organic chemistry book on top of those suckers without getting too close, a strategy that was really…

Back in November, a child at my kids’ middle school was allegedly assaulted with a knife. A group of students had apparently been “playing around” with plastic knives during recess and one of them decided to take his game to the next level: using his weapon on a peer. Where was the adult supervision when this “game” was being played? How did these kids manage to bring knives to school? Two completely valid questions. The answer to the first is yet another question mark. The answer to the second is two-fold. Firstly, these kids didn’t bring knives from home. Rather,…

The kids are back in school and the routine of homework, extracurricular activities, and getting the kids up-and-going begins yet again. Lost somewhere in the course of these busy days is the time to truly connect with our kids. Throw in our own adult obligations, geography, and teenagers who retreat to their rooms immediately upon entering the house, and real interaction with our kids seems futile. So many factors work against parents and grandparents, teachers and anyone else who works with kids, wanting to “be there”. Several years ago I received “150 Ways to Show Kids You Care”, a list…