This week is the last week of the school year for my kids. We’ve been really busy lately with end of the year awards’ assemblies, class programs, Tae Kwon Do performances, field days, parties, etc. The kids have been bringing home large piles of art work and school work and notebooks that I vaguely remember buying and sending off to school with them last August in significantly different condition.

Yes, there is excitement in the air, because summer vacation is almost upon us. I have to say that I like the summer. I like having my kids home. I like being able to be lazy in the... more

I hope all of you had a happy Mother’s Day yesterday. I really enjoyed writing about Mother’s Day and moms all week long.

One of the things I love the most about holidays is seeing my kids get all excited. And even though there are no baskets of candy, stocking full of toys, costumes to wear, or anything else special for them, they were all really excited yesterday. They were all so excited to give me all of the treasures that they have made. I really raked it in! I was given two home-made jewelry boxes from my Boy Scouts, two beautiful flower pots with pens that look like flowers in them from my older girls that they made at church, three small potted plants from some... more

Despite what some cynics may say, Mother’s Day was not invented by the florists and greeting card companies (although they no doubt find it a prosperous time of year). The earliest known Mother’s Day celebrations have been traced to ancient Greece, when Rhea, the Mother of the Gods was celebrated. “Mothering Sunday” was celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent in England during the 1600’s, and on this day all mothers in England were celebrated.

In the United States, the idea of Mother’s Day was first presented by Julia Ward Howe, who is the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. In 1872, Howe suggested a day dedicated to peace and celebrating mothers, and she held organized... more

Celebrating Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day) with children that were adopted can be complicated, because even though you are their mom or dad, you are not their only mom or dad. Often these holidays can be a time of reflection and remembering their birth parents for children that were adopted.

The June 2006 issue of Adoptive Families Magazine has a great article by Marybeth Lambe, M.D. that offers ways to help your child celebrate Mother’s Day or Father’s Day and how to handle the emotions that they may be feeling.

Here are... more

Yesterday I posted my first of a week’s worth of posts on Mother’s Day. I have some poems and information on the history of Mother’s Day and some fun things just to celebrate moms for the week. I also have some thoughts on how life is different for a mom whose child is of a different race than herself.

But today, I am still working through how I feel about Mother’s Day. Yesterday I talked about how it used to be such a difficult day for me, and how now, it truly is a day that I celebrate, even one of my favorite days of the year.

As I was thinking about it more last night, my feelings do go deeper than that. Of course, I still do miss the relationship I don’t have with my own... more

With Mother’s Day coming up this week, I am going to be writing a little bit about moms and Mother’s Day every day between now and then.

Let me first admit, that I used to hate Mother’s Day. My own mom was abusive, and then ended up leaving our family. My Dad essentially raised us as a single dad. And although he was an awesome parent (still is!) there were times in my life where I really missed having a mom. Mother’s Day was one of those times. I always felt like everyone in the world had a mom to celebrate with but me and my brother and sister. It was definitely a day... more

Click here for Part One of my writing on World AIDS Orphans Day

Today, May 7, 2006, is the fifth annual World AIDS Orphans Day. In 2001, during the United Nationals Declaration of commitments on HIV/AIDS in New York, government representatives from all over the world made a joint commitment to build national policies and strategies to “provide a favorable environment to orphans and children made vulnerable by AIDS.” (quotes above and below are from www.worldorphansday.org)

The goals set at that time were to “Fight stigmatization and... more

Tomorrow is May 7, and it is World AIDS Orphans Day. The day was organized to show how great a need there is for AIDS orphans to be cared for and to call public attention worldwide to the crisis that these children are in.

The number 15 is a scary number in the statistics for AIDS orphans. Every 15 seconds a child loses a parent to AIDS and there are already over 15 million AIDS orphans in the world right now. The numbers and their implications are almost too horrible to really comprehend.

And as if being an orphan isn’t bad enough, AIDS orphans suffer in ways above... more

This week is National TV Turnoff week, and if you have never participated in TV turnoff week, I thought I would give you some ideas on how to do it, and some of the benefits of doing it.

Now let me say that I am not one of those moms that doesn’t let my kids watch TV. My kids do watch TV, and truth be told, some days they probably watch more than they should. But, all of my kids also do a good amount of reading each day, are extremely physically active and involved in sports and activities. So I feel like my family has a healthy balance when it comes to TV watching.

But... more

Happy Easter! I have tried to keep the religious themes low on my blog because I know that there are many families of different faiths out there and I do not want to offend anyone or make anyone feel unwelcome or uncomfortable, but since this is my blog and my thoughts, I just can’t skip Easter.

Easter in our home is a lot of fun. We are Christians and do believe Easter to be the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior. In the midst of all the fun things we do for Easter we do strive to keep Christ at the center of our holiday. We read scriptures from... more