When I first came to America I used the telephone rarely.  I would call my family back in England, every 3 months or so and was surprised when I met peers who called sisters, mothers, fathers, and brothers I suppose, several times a week. “Why?”  I would ask. “To chat!” they would say. Americans love…

Someone posed a question this week the answer to which I am addressing on my radio show this afternoon.  Live on Toginet Radio at 4-5pm CT. The question is: “What do you do while you are teaching your other children and your youngest is swinging from the chandelier?” Sounds all too familiar doesn’t it?  Today…

I keep a dream book.  This is not a wishful thinking journal it is a book in which I record any dreams that have been remembered long enough to make it to the breakfast table.  Anyone can contribute. Every now and again we’ll pull it out and read through the crazy dreams.  Sometimes, as we…

When you’ve been married for 26 years, as I have (and to the same person I might add), you give up playing the game, “Tell me something about yourself that I don’t know.”  At least I did. I think we’ve told each other just about everything there is to tell.  None of his stories surprise…

We’ve just had Memorial Day and my eighteen year old rookie dater managed to finagle an invitation to the young man’s parents’ house.  She went over in the early evening and his brother and grandparents were also there so she managed to meet a large portion of family.  She stayed for an hour or so,…

The morning of the date dawned and with it the heavens opened in a great watery display. My blue eyed cowboy and I had been surmising as to where she was going to be taken on her debut outing alone with a boy and most of the places we thought of were outdoors.  We groaned…

After the disastrous dinner screening of our youngests’ potential date she cruised through a semester without risking a similar demise with any of her ensuing male friends.  There are not many brave enough to venture across our threshold, but one did materialise once college and finals had been successfully completed. Without a pre-view our youngest…

Dinner was not quite ready and the conversation was lagging so I innocently asked if he was an only child since it was obvious that his potential date was not…? “I thought I was,” he said, “for 17 years,” audible intake of breath, from all of us, as we gave him our undivided attention. ”…

Turning eighteen in our house does not stop at patronising a tattoo and piercing parlour.  In our house another rite of passage occurs…dating is officially A-okay! So, hot off the press my youngest daughter invited a poor, unsuspecting date candidate to our house one Sunday for dinner.  In true homeschool family style we turned out…

A couple of weeks ago my youngest daughter turned 18 amid a wave of excitement which I kept dampening.  I couldn’t understand what could be so different about this particular birthday, one day it’s Friday, the next day it’s Saturday…end of story! “Oh but” she kept reminding me, “one day I’m 17 the next day…