"Life" Books
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When the First Time is Also the Last Time
Seven years. This picture was taken seven years ago, after my nephew’s PK concert at his school. Some days it seems like yesterday. Other days it seems like my whole lifetime. It just started storming here at my home and it’s a bit crazy because it was storming the night of this performance. Do you ever have memories that have such vivid pictures when you close your eyes? There are so many details I can remember about this night. It was so bittersweet. My niece wanted us to sit up close to the front, so we did. I had Lucy in my Ergo carrier while also trying to set up…
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Influence.
Influence: noun; 1. the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways. 2. The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something. 3. According to Babbel, “In 2025, influence is the ability to inspire action, shape opinions, and drive trends.” (impact; leadership; guidance; direction; hold; control; power.) Influencers. Time 100. World leaders. New Pope. All these people are human beings and definitely deserve the right to speak and hold a place in this world, as well as all of God’s creation has the right too. Today, though, I’m thinking about the ones who never get the trophy or attempt…
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Try a Little Tenderness
I am just going to jump right in today, because if I am completely honest, I have a lot of questions that I am not sure if anyone is willing to answer or even discuss, or at least not in public. So here it goes, I apologize for the small bit of politics that will get me to my questions… The President has made it 100 days (or has it been months?) and if he was going for record breaking numbers, which I think we know he absolutely loves BIG, he seems to very proud and at ease with his agenda. I, of course assume this because if he was…
- "Life" Books, Children, Chronic Illness, Consider This..., Family, Friends & Neighbors, GRANDparents
They’ve Chosen the Wrong Battle
You’re now in a secret world. You’ll see things you never imagined; ignorance, rudeness, and discrimination. But you’ll also witness so many everyday miracles, and you’ll know it. You won’t think a milestone is just a milestone, you’ll know it’s a miracle and be present in that moment. You’ll treasure things most wouldn’t think twice about. You’ll become an advocate, an educator, a specialist and a therapist, but most of all, you’ll be a mom to the most wonderful child. Geraldine Renton “They have no clue who they are messing with!” I have said this over and over in the past few weeks. Medical research funding cuts were enough to…
- "Life" Books, Aunt-ing, Children, Family, Friends & Neighbors, GRANDparents, Let's be Real, Pass it On..., Siblings
Do You Like Me?
But he was in his room, wasn’t he? We thought he was safe, didn’t we? What harm can he do in there? Exchange of questions between Jamie’s Parents in the 4-part miniseries, Adolescence You have probably heard of this miniseries, and you may be tired of hearing about it. I ask you, please give me a few sentences and then you can choose to close your browser if you would like to stop reading. Along with most of the world, I have been shook by this miniseries. Not necessarily by the truth it exposes, but by the guts it took to actual put real life in the homes of families…
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The Sights and Sounds of Children
What does the movie Corrina, Corrina and The Nanny Diaries have in common? If you guessed, two of my favorites that I never get tired of watching, you guessed half of it! The other half is they also influenced how I love kids and how they tick. Growing up Corrina, Corrina was one of the Blockbuster picks I would usually pick when I couldn’t find anything else 😊 (or Sister Act 1 and 2- cannot go wrong with Whoopi Goldberg). The brilliance of this movie, I believe, lies in the amazing work of how a child handles grief. It begins with the visitation after a funeral, the funeral of a…
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When Your Lucky Underpants Don’t Work
They should gamify your medical records so that each time you have a new and exciting symptom, you unlock an achievement in MyChart. Haha! If only this was true! I recently requested all my records – it took them a while – but I eventually received a digital file of a beautiful 7,000+ pages of records. I didn’t just request them for the fun of requesting them. I wanted them to go over some of my medical history. However, the overwhelming gratitude I have for every doctor, nurse, therapist, radiologist, the list goes on- who cared for and treated me – only explodes as I read through these pages. And…
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Courage to Venture
Allow this to soak in for a minute or two. By the way, I recommend this movie. You can read about it in the link above. Two things that you should know: 1. it’s three hours- so create space and time to watch. 2. Be alert to the almost identical parallels to today’s world. The scene that this quote comes from is a scene of a painter who is painting the Biblical frescoes in a church. He spoke this and I believe my heart stopped for a couple seconds and I had to stop and find exactly what he said in writing. As the article states, the whole movie points…
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Co-Learners in Lifelong Learning
My soul has grown deep like the rivers. Langston Hughes What do you think Langston Hughes was thinking of when he wrote “grown deep like the rivers?” What do you think made his soul grow deep? Longing, pain, suffering, enduring, what he had witnessed, the circumstances that were his life? And what about the visual of rivers becoming deep? I did not pay attention well in science, but I do believe the speed of the water flowing, the tides, the waves crashing all have something to do with the different depths you find in the rivers. The application of this quote, of many favorites by Langston Hughes, is this: we…
- "Life" Books, Consider This..., Family, Friends & Neighbors, GRANDparents, Let's be Real, Pass it On...
Meet Them Where They Are
Every once in a while my Mom will leave me encouraging notes, or something she has read, or sometimes a comic strip. This week she left me a story from Guideposts. And the story was about an older man, who had made an impact on this family’s life, in many different ways. The adult children of the writer remembered that when they were little, “he always bent low.” What a legacy! The opportunity he saw in a child, to simply take the time to get on their level, which was probably increasingly difficult, but he saw this as something of great worth. I also can say I have had those…
