Parenting requires so many decisions, it can sometimes become mind-numbing. How to respond to discipline issues, what to do about kids’ friendship struggles, which sports to encourage them toward and what other activities to enroll them in. We have so much information and so many opportunities at our fingertips, it can be hard to sort…
Bucket Lists
Junior High “Graduation” and Post-Achievement Depression
I find myself holding my breath often this past week, choking back tears. At times a wave of sadness will roll up from the depths of my stomach into my chest and across my lungs, constricting them. I want to weep. On Thursday my husband and I joined the other eighth-grade parents in the school…
7 Reasons to Write Up Your Family Bucket List This Summer
1. Why not? You know you have a list rattling around in your brain of things you want to do before your children fly the nest. Why not write it down? You’re more likely to remember the ideas you have if you keep them securely noted somewhere. And you free up your mind from thinking…
Now Available: Family Bucket Lists e-book
Today marks the official launch of the Family Bucket Lists e-book. I plan to celebrate all week long with some fun online events – including offering a free printable download of family night/dinnertime questions for brainstorming your family’s bucket list when you purchase the e-book. Here’s where you can find me and Family Bucket Lists…
Coming on May 13th: Family Bucket Lists, the e-book
What is on your bucket list? Where do you want to go? What do you want to see? How do you want to spend the years before your children grow up? Answering those questions can be both exhilarating and perplexing. It’s fun to think of all the exploits we’d like to undertake in our lifetime….
The Best Question to Ask Your Mom This Mother’s Day
What would make Mom’s day? If you’re in the midst of shopping and preparing for Mother’s Day, that question is probably on your mind. And maybe you’ve even asked the mom in your life that question directly (or had it asked of you). But asking that question doesn’t always make the celebration any easier. Often…
Family Bucket Lists: Forming a lively family identity (Reason #4 to Make Yours)
“All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”…
Family Bucket Lists: Living in expectation of adventure (Reason #3 to Make Yours)
A ping from the plane’s loudspeakers roused me from my book. Out the window I could see the green furrowed squares of farmland and unfamiliar tan slopes of flint hills. We were over Kansas and almost to our destination. ‘This is Kansas,’ I told myself, eyes scanning the view outside in disbelief. I knew I…
Family Bucket Lists: Let’s Land That Helicopter, Mom
My breath caught at the sight of the bright flags piled near the gym wall. A few girls were already spinning and tossing the aluminum-poled silks. Instinctively my body reacted to the sharp thwap of fabric slicing air, hands itching to join the movements. Suddenly I was 15 again, standing in the early morning haze…
Family Bucket Lists: Reason 1 to Make Yours
Can I let you in on a secret? Someday I would like to take a pie in the face. A fluffy, gooey cream pie (whipped cream, chocolate cream, vanilla cream, doesn’t matter, just so long as it’s cream), right on the nose. It’s goofy, but I do. The wackiness of it is probably what appeals…