Stories

He’s talented. Good looking. Successful. A rising star. And a husband with a 16-year marriage, a happy family, and five children.  Hollywood has seen a lot, but happy traditional families? That’s a rarity in a town where shocking divorces and shattered relationships are the bread and butter of weekly tabloids. And that’s no revelation to Chris, […]

I recently read an interesting article written by Jonathan Zalesne, Marriage Counselor and Couples Therapist in Fort Collins, Colorado, entitled, “Blending families:  A Merger, Not a Hostile Take-over.” https://coloradocouples.com/blending-families-a-merger-not-a-hostile-takeover/ The corporate metaphor rang true, and reminded me of a newly-divorced woman, who was in a new relationship with a newly-divorced man.  In response to an inquiry

If you want to create some magical moments with your children while they are young, plan a few minutes of reading time together each day. Set aside the electronics, cozy up together, and let the world slip away as you share a favorite book. Here is a unique list of Read Aloud Books our family

It’s interesting how traditions begin. Years ago, for our growing family, the Thanksgiving weekend was a time for scrambling around, seeing grandparents and trying to get started on some Christmas shopping. Thanksgiving Day itself was all about the food and the football. Our Thanksgiving traditions were to eat way too much and to watch the

It’s time again for those lists of resolutions. “But one resolution may be missing and is worth adding to our list,” says Doro Bush Koch, “Reading to our young children every night and encouraging older children to read.” And as the daughter of President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush and the honorary co-chairman of

Let me ask you something. And it’s a kooky question, so stick with me. If, and I say if, there was a way to pre-determine whether our kids would be born with a high EQ (Emotional Quotient) or a high IQ (Intelligence Quotient), which would you chose? My only stipulation is that you can only

Maintaining a yard or garden requires that we deal with the weeds. Some put down weed barrier. This lasts about two years until the weeds grow through it and create a more difficult problem. Others put down mulch. This works for a couple of years until it breaks down and provides decent soil for weeds

My kids are getting old. And I don’t like it.   Now that they’re in high school and college, my girls don’t need me anymore in the same ways they used to and I miss being needed as somebody’s mom.   See, it’s not that I don’t want them to grow up. Of course, I

One of the joys of being a parent is to read to your child. We begin with picture books and slowly move on to longer stories with and without pictures. We generally think of reading to little ones before they go to sleep. As they get older, they learn to read on their own but

One of the reasons I love being a writer is that again and again I’m part of a story.  But I don’t mean only the story I’m telling; I’m also part of the story of how that story came to be. And a story usually doesn’t begin in that lovely, sometimes incandescent moment when it