For our blended family, this has been a week of last minute changes.  One moment we were adding a Tuesday night to the kid’s usual schedule and the next we were subtracting a Tuesday and adding a Thursday.  Then we added a Monday, but that fell through at the last minute.  (more…)

They handed her to me, still covered in the fluids of birth.  She might have been an angel sent directly from heaven.  10 fingers.  10 toes.  Two tiny, little ears.  She was perfect in every way.

And somehow, eighteen years later, she’s all grown up.  The time passed at once quickly and slowly:  lazy days  . . . lightning years.  In a singularly long blink of an eye, her childhood is over and now, at least in the eyes of the law, she’s an adult. (more…)

A friend noticed the brightly wrapped packages under our Christmas tree.  “You put the presents out before Christmas?”  I responded with “Of course, don’t you?”  There seems to be little consensus on the details of how one should celebrate the holidays. (more…)

Uncertainty is in the air in my house.  Out of our five children, four of them will be attending new schools next year.  The amazing thing is that we have no idea what schools.  What college, what high schools, what elementary school?  We’ve pretty much got the educational span covered. (more…)

It was late and we were driving on a narrow country road.  Victoria was looking down at her cell phone, texting.  Off to my left I saw some elaborate Halloween lights.  Suddenly blinded, I was aware of two sets of headlights coming directly toward us. (more…)