families Archive

  • 525,600 minutes

    Posted on June 27, 2012 | 5 Comments
    We’re on a family trip.   Notice that I didn’t call it a family “vacation” because that implies rest and relaxation, which this experience does not include.   We travel about once a year, but it’s usually in conjunction with my extended family, which dramatically […]

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  • Dog Heaven

    Posted on January 26, 2012 | 8 Comments
    . You know how we all imagine that 'dog heaven' will be a place where dogs get to do what dogs like, like ride in cars with their heads hanging out the window or run through meadows chasing balls and sticks? Somehow, 'Mormon heaven' has never sounded like 'Claire heaven' to me.

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  • Roller Coaster

    Posted on January 5, 2012 | 2 Comments
    A year ago, I was living in a daze. I was spending most nights curled up against my 11 year old daughter's back as she lay on her side in her bed, willing her pain to dissipate, even hoping to absorb it myself.

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  • Favorites: Heroic Aspirations, Gay Marriage, and the Mormon Church

    Posted on October 9, 2011 | 8 Comments
    This is a guest post I wrote nearly a year ago. . . DHO is still running around arguing that the proper practice of our religion requires us to work to prevent marginalized groups from exercising their basic civil rights. . .

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  • The Wish Tree

    Posted on September 15, 2011 | 1 Comment
    I had my five year old daughter with me and I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get her very interested in the bronzes. Then we turned the corner and beheld the Wish Tree.

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  • Crash Test

    Posted on September 1, 2011 | 2 Comments
    The thought of any inexperienced driver in charge of a 4,000 pound machine makes me very nervous, but anticipating my own flesh-and-blood inexperienced driver sends me almost into a panic.

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  • Window to Utopia

    Posted on August 11, 2011 | 6 Comments
    What would heaven be like, for a teenager?

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  • We Are Pioneers

    Posted on July 28, 2011 | 4 Comments
    As I was telling my Kindergartner earlier this month that we're all pioneers in some way. Whenever we stand up for what we believe in or do something because we know inside it's a good thing to do, we are pioneers.

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  • Find Your Tribe

    Posted on April 14, 2011 | 4 Comments
    Over a decade ago I read this article in Mothering Magazine about a woman who is far from family and friends and meets up with another woman to share household projects and childcare over the course of a day several times a week, alternating households. […]

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  • Kids and Calamities

    Posted on March 31, 2011 | 12 Comments
    I watched the Twin Towers fall on TV, my oldest child safely ensconced in her kindergarten class.   My toddler was playing with blocks nearby…. building towers and knocking them down.   “Mommy, why does your face look like this?”   she asked, mimicking my […]

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  • “Do you want to end up living under a bridge?”

    Posted on March 17, 2011 | 10 Comments
    This is, reportedly, what my daughter’s second grade teacher asked her class during a fit of frustration over their less-than-enthusiastic preparation for the looming standardized testing.   Several other parents and I were concerned, but felt trapped in the status quo and didn’t really see […]

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  • Talents: Addition and Multiplication

    Posted on March 10, 2011 | 9 Comments
    This is a guest post from a favorite reader and commenter, Corktree. It may sound simplistic (or just serving of my purpose), but I’ve always read the parable of the talents to mean actual talents.   It’s just easy to see how one might be […]

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  • Celebrating the Man As Well As His Cause

    Posted on March 3, 2011 | 13 Comments
    A guest post from a reader, Debra. Names matter. They do. My life experience has taught me this. Names are important as they are references — signs – that direct us to meaning, and often to a particular point in time – in history. In […]

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  • Memories

    Posted on December 16, 2010 | 4 Comments
    A grateful resident presented me with a chocolate turkey, wrapped in beautiful multicolored foil. Then she looked around her room, reached over to her bedside table, and handed my brother a mushy brown banana.

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  • Lunch 5- Out of the Comfort Zone

    Posted on December 2, 2010 | 8 Comments
    We (and our children) have had to learn to be gracious guests at both cockroach infested decrepit apartments and mansions where we are served by The Help.

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  • Giving Thanks

    Posted on November 26, 2010 | 1 Comment
    'The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.' -Mahatma Ghandi

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  • TV dinner

    Around the Dinner Table: What’s a family?

    Posted on October 6, 2010 | 28 Comments
    While digging through the pile of papers in my seven-year-old’s backpack, I came across a copy of a page from the district reading curriculum that includes the weekly spelling words and a couple of ‘Guiding Questions’ for parents to talk to their kids about at […]

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