Parenthood

I would have loved a manual on how to raise my kids when I took them home from the hospital.  Literally, a step-by-step guide on each of them.  Since this magical manual does not exist, I had to find...

First I want to say unequivocally that I love macaroni and cheese, and I have since I was a very young child. My mother used to joke that the year I was four I ate nothing but macaroni and...

Death. Of all of the talks and open dialogs I expected to have with my daughter over the years, this was not one of them. But there it is. It's like a giant neon sign. A topic I never saw...

Have you ever heard of au pairs before and wondered what they were all about? Or maybe thought that live-in childcare is only for rich people? My family hosted au pairs for five years, and I think it’s one...

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” This is one of the most common questions we ask our children. When they’re young the answers our kids give us can range from the pragmatic to the fantastical. “A...

I'm having a "Magical Unicorn" kind of summer with my kids and I am not ashamed to admit it.  During those cool spring months, I began to envision what our summer would look like. And to be honest, I was...

I have a rising high school senior (that's what you call them when it's summer time and they're not in school, you see), and many of us are thinking about the impending change that is "sending our kids out...

Hopefully Foster Care in Iowa Part 1 and Foster Care in Iowa Part 2 gave you good insights about becoming a foster family and who are the kids in care. With so much information, I’m sure you have questions....

Out of everything that I worried about as I became a new mom, sleep truly wasn’t something I worried about. That was one thing I thought I knew how to do. Though I am a first-time mom, I am not...

When I was growing up, my dad would routinely, and very quietly, tell me I was his favorite kid, or that he loved me more than my sister. Now, I was old enough to understand the joking way he...