By now, most of you have read the story of Brittany Maynard. At 29 years old, Brittany was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer only a year after getting married. After brain surgery, she was told she had six months to live and decided to move to Oregon to take advantage of that state's Death with Dignity Law. After receiving a prescription for medication that will end her life, Brittany has chosen her last few weeks to advocate for the right to die.
How To Handle Kids and Fears
When I was a little girl, I had a poster hanging on the wall next to my bed. The poster was of Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck sharing a sundae in a 1950s dinner. I was CONVINCED that if I fell asleep facing the poster I would have nightmares, usually involving vampires.
I was afraid of vampires and spiders and ghosts. My father once let me watch Unsolved Mysteries, so I was terrified of being kidnapped. I also remember watching the television movie I Know My First Name Is Steven, based on the real life abduction of Steven Staynor, and being thoroughly traumatized.
I assume that these were normal childhood fears, and I don't believe I suffer from any long-term consequences. My parents told me there was nothing to be afraid of and in a way they were right. The thing that ended up filling my childhood with scary images and long-term trauma was something no one saw coming.
Of course, now as a parent, I see the scary things that haunt children from a completely different perspective. Neither of my children are particularly fearful. I've only seem Amos shake with fear once and that was only over a particularly pesky fly.
However, I wonder if this has made me too complacent in a way. Recently, Griffin has basically had to tell me something was too scary for him.
5 Costume Ideas for Families with all BOYS!
It's October. Summer is officially over and it's time to embrace all things fall from corn mazes to falling leaves to COSTUMES!
That's right. October means Halloween and Halloween means costumes. I love dressing up and every year I look forward to planning out every little detail of what we will wear.
You see, we are family costumers. There is a theme. We all dress accordingly and have since Griffin was born. I love getting dressed up and I love being part of a group and I love these hooligans I call my family so it really is the perfect scenario for me.
It's gotten harder as we have to work around actual children with actual preferences (aka we will be dressed as some types of superheros again this year) but I never tire of the challenge.
Since family costumes take a bit more preparation, I thought I'd give you a couple ideas early in the month in case you wanted to force - I mean lovingly guide - your family into a theme.
5 Things That Make Me Smile
12 Pieces of Great Advice
So, here's the thing. Lena Dunham is my favorite person. Ok, not favorite as in FAVORITE of all time. She's my favorite person who I don't actually know.
I'm officially unseating Oprah. That's how much I love Lena.
She has a new book Not That Kind of Girl (which I have obviously already pre-ordered) coming out and to promote it she did this awesome series of advice videos that are not to be missed. Everything I love about her is present in these videos - her intelligence, her sense of humor, her empathy.
Falling Leaves Craft on The Happiest Home
Two years ago, I shared one of my favorite fall crafts on one of my favorite blogs The Happiest Home. To celebrate the beginning of autumn, I thought I'd share it here as well!
It's a GREAT kid's craft with all things kids love - mainly making a "mess" with paint and paper! Only this time, the mess in channeled into an adorable craft!
We’ve all seen various handprint trees on Pinterest. However, on a recent visit to my best friend’s house I noticed a new twist on this old falling leaves craft stuck to her refrigerator door. My friend’s son has special needs and his awesome behavioral therapist Heather had added “falling leaves” (in a clear, sealed plastic bag – no mess!) and taken this traditional tree to a whole new level.
I knew immediately it would be a huge hit with my three-year-old son Griffin and we tackled it as soon as we got home.
First, we painted our hands red, yellow, and orange and made hand prints for the leaves of the trees.
Next up, we made the “falling leaves.” Heather had died pasta red and yellow to create her leaves. However, I am not as creative as Heather (read: I am lazy) and decided to harness my son’s mess-making ability by letting him tear and cut up little pieces of construction to make his leaves.
While he was making the falling leaves, I cut out our handprints and two basic tree trunks out of brown paper. My son helped me glue the handprint leaves to the tree trunk and then we taped them to the front of a clear ziplock bag.
He then put all his “falling leaves” in the bag and VOILA! two beautiful autumn trees with leaves falling down in between.
My son loves making the leaves “fall” over and over. I loved making a fun and easy craft that took less than 30 minutes and required no special supplies!
5 Ways To Celebrate Bourbon!
Some of us would love to celebrate Bourbon Heritage Month. Heck, some of us like to celebrate bourbon all month long. However, SOME OF US are pregnant and can't celebrate bourbon the right way (which is on the rocks for anyone who would like to know) so ....
I gathered up other delicious ways to celebrate over at HerKentucky.
Spoiler Alert: Most of them involve chocolate.
The Truth That Changed My Marriage
Nicholas and I have been married for eleven years. We work hard. We have two small children. We recently lost a baby. In theory, these should be tough times for our marriage, but they have been just the opposite.
These past two years have been our happiest and most fulfilling as a couple.
My husband is still the man he has always been. He is attentive and caring and intelligent, but he didn’t magically stop doing all the things that annoy me (leaving his shoes around the house, paying too much attention to his iPhone, giggling to his favorite podcasts, this is not a comprehensive list). We still fight and he still hurts my feelings from time to time.
No, Nicholas didn’t change. I did.
