parenthood
Philanthropy and Family
Whether you have ten dollars or $100,000 to give away, involving children in philanthropic giving helps connect them to the world, their own values, and the power of generosity. My husband and I have always wanted our family to have a strong philanthropic focus. We want our kids to be involved in deciding which causes…
Read MoreMy Year in the Cocoon: Birth as a Teacher for Healing
Today marks one year since my skiing accident when I blew out my ACL, tore my MCL and strained my LCL. Of the soft tissue in my knee, only my meniscus was left relatively unscathed. I’ve had many people ask me if my knee is all “back to normal.” This is a difficult question as…
Read More“Enjoy every minute as they grow up fast.”
How did they grow up so fast? How did they get so old? Parents of older kids often give the same advice to new parents: “Enjoy every minute as they grow up fast.” Our boys are now 17 and 15. One is applying to college and the other recently earned his black belt in…
Read MoreHow Old is the Parent?
New parents are often asked, “How old is your baby? It’s a sweetly intentioned question and one we can usually answer easily (depending on our current level of sleep deprivation!). An equally pertinent question is, “How old is the parent?” For some reason, we think that upon the arrival of our child, we somehow become fully-formed…
Read MoreOn This Day…Sharing Birth Stories
My birth story. Fourteen years ago today I was precisely 40 weeks pregnant with our second child. Yep, it was my estimated due date. It was also the day after we had new sod go in our newly landscaped backyard. Frustrating the avid gardener in me, the landscapers did not “tamp down” the new grass,…
Read MoreThe Myth of Self-Care
I often hear new parents, especially new mothers, talk about the importance of self-care. Birth professionals also drive home the need for new mothers to take care of themselves. And while I agree it is important to take care of oneself even while caring for a child, we can also use it against ourselves as…
Read MoreThings Don’t Always Go as Planned or Expected
For the last three months I have been eagerly awaiting June 4th, the day I would get to welcome a group of birth worker sisters to my workshop space and home for a sisterhood retreat and sleepover. Together and individually we prepared for our time together: gathered necessary items, planned our time, prepared the space,…
Read MoreNurturing Charitable Giving in Children
When I thought about my kids before they were even born, I had ideas, like most moms-to-be that my kids would be good kids, loving and caring. I knew I wanted them to be warm and be able to feel deeply into the lives of those less fortunate. I wanted my kids to want to…
Read MoreHe’s Grown New Feathers Enabling Farther Flight
Our boy is off for the ISEE (the standardized test used by private schools the way the SAT is used by colleges and universities). We chose to have him attend a small alternative public school in part because he gets stressed out by tests and frankly the word “test” means something completely different when you…
Read MoreGestating Our Journey: Re-entry After a Year of Traveling
I guess it should be no surprise that I didn’t do a single post in October. Yes, it was a busy month, but I think it had more to do with how I was holding the trip last month. In many ways, I wasn’t. Re-entry took precedence over gestation. There is a difference. We’ve been…
Read MoreWhen the Tentacles are Gone and I am Left with Myself
It hit me while we were in Tuscany this summer, that now with my graduate course work done, I would no longer have three day school trips to mark my month and give me two nights a month in a hotel room, ALONE. That obligatory time away was over even if the amount of work…
Read MoreThe Gifts of Seventh-Grade: The Joys of Traveling with Teens
There are many gifts we’ve received from our journey away, some were expected, others less so and some were complete surprises. Enjoying spending nearly every moment for a year with my seventh-grade son was not something I expected. First off, I hated seventh-grade. I mean hated it. It was a rough year for me on…
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