Practice driving

My daughter asked me to let her drive home from her gymnastics practice last night. My first thought was “No way!” but then I realized she’ll never learn to drive if I don’t let her behind the wheel. What good is driver’s ed. if she never gets to practice what she’s learning? She also had [...]

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A bad decision

Have you ever made a really bad decision, but didn’t realize it at the time? Then later the gravity of your mistake began to sink in and weigh heavy on your conscience? That feeling describes how our family felt last night after having our family portrait taken for our church’s directory.
After we took the pictures, we [...]

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Driver’s ed.

My daughter took her first driver’s ed. class yesterday. Now she’s quizzing me on arcane facts like if I’m travelling at 50 miles per hour, how many feet in advance of a turn do I signal my intent to turn? I guessed 50 feet. (Answer: 300 ft.) Okay– so I flunked. I told her most [...]

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What’s for lunch?

Now that my kids are on their own for the first time this summer, the question of what’s for lunchlooms larger than ever. When I talked to my daughter today, she said all they had was leftover macaroni and cheese (and soft drinks, I discovered later). They didn’t eat any chicken nuggets or turkey lunch [...]

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Growing up

I recently wrote about letting go of kids as they get older, how their interests change, and how they want to do new and different things than they did as younger children. I mentioned that my own mother was having a harder time letting my kids grow up than I was. She was upset that [...]

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Letting go

I don’t know which is harder: letting go of my children as they get older or keeping myself from turning into my mother, who still keeps a watchful eye on me even as I enter middle age. Nothing I do (or don’t do) doesn’t escape her notice or comment.
Ever since my kids were too old [...]

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Teen slang

One of things that either makes or breaks your ‘coolness’ as a parent of a teen is whether or not they allow you to use their slang terms. My 15 year old daughter’s latest term is ‘dog’ as in ‘Dog, how ‘ya doin’?’ I suppose ‘dog’ is slang for friend or buddy, so I absorb [...]

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Too old to tuck in?

Ever since my children were babies and toddlers, I’ve taken time to read to them before tucking them in bed. I cherish that time with them, because that’s when they open like little flowers and tell me all about their day. I get insights into their classrooms, social lives, and sometimes even their fears. Before [...]

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Girl Scout cookies

Girl Scout cookies are here! I have more Thin Mints for my cookie stash (although some years, I’ve had more cookies stashed than I’d like to admit).
This is the first year Laura hasn’t been in Girl Scouts since first grade. Except for the one year where my co-leader and I didn’t have time to handle [...]

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