As promised, here she is: our new puppy. We drove to Ohio Monday and spent the night at a hotel with a water park. Very fun! Then Tuesday we went and got Keely and drove home. It was a fantastic trip, but exhausting. I didn’t even feel like eating anything until midday Thursday. The last [...]

I mentioned in the Respecting Boundaries post that a little over 2 years ago our cat Callie passed away. Callie was 17 years old, completely blind and deaf by the end. The boys were roughly 4 and 8 at the time. Callie was more my pet than theirs, simply because I’d had her since she [...]

I think one of the MOST difficult aspects of parenting (for me at least) is knowing how and when to set limits. Just like the piano battles I mentioned the other day…there are also other areas in which I find conflict with the boys. It’s always been very important to me to create an environment [...]

I’ve been chatting back and forth via e-mail with a reader and she asked a question today that reminded me of a trick my own mother used successfully. You know…back in the day when I was little. Well, she had to use it on my sister because I was (of course) the perfect child. Moving [...]

Right now, each set of boys shares a bedroom. This is rather an efficient arrangement, as we live in a 3-bedroom home. We have room to expand though, and could possibly add 2 more bedrooms in the next year or so. I want one room for visiting family. I could then…. The rest of the [...]

So. We’re deep into the month of August and I say something innocent to the older boys like, “you need to practice the piano today.” They do not take this well, and frowns and foot-stomping abound. Every now and then in the parenting journey you come to an important battle point. In my mind, this [...]