My boys, three years apart, enjoyed the same second grade teacher. Actually, I enjoyed her very much myself. Mrs. J was a fantastic teacher who maintained a classroom balanced with fun and order. She was very creative when it came to assignments and projects, too. Each year, during the week before Curriculum Night (the evening during which the parents were invited to visit the classroom and hear an overview of that year’s curriculum from the teachers), Mrs. J asked each student in her class to choose a parent to draw and describe. She told the kids to refrain from writing any names on the front of the papers, and on…
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What Teenagers Will Do When Left Alone For The Weekend…
I’m back. You didn’t even really know I was gone, did you? That “rare opportunity to disconnect” that I wrote about on Sunday evening? That was me being away from home for five days, alone with my husband (that means no kids). Jim and I flew to New Mexico and stayed just south of Santa Fe for a much-needed break, and in fact when I wrote that post, I was still “sitting in my southwestern office” at our Bed and Breakfast: It is going to take me a couple of days to assemble a proper post (or two) with pictures (I took about 550, but don’t worry: I won’t share…
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Sometimes It’s Hard To Wait For What’s Worth Waiting For.
We have worked really hard to teach our kids all about money and the importance of making good decisions with it, since they were old enough to know what money is. They know first hand that when you work hard for something, you appreciate it much more than if it were just handed to you. As a result, I’m proud to say that my kids have purchased their own iPods, computers, guitars, and cars. Well, car: only one so far. J has been talking about a car for a couple of years now, and naturally when he turned sixteen in February, he went into overdrive, so to speak. Suddenly the…
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How To Avoid “Mom, I’m Bored!”
Step 1: Have children. Step 2: Do your best to keep them entertained all the time when they’re babies and then toddlers. Step 3: Rejoice when they start preschool and then kindergarten, because although you adore your children and love spending time with them, that’s two and a half hours less (on 3-5 days per week) you’ll have to make sure they’ve got stuff to do, and two and a half hours more (on 3-5 days per week) you’ll have all to yourself. Step 4: Do the Happy Dance when they begin full-day elementary school. Step 5: Feel overwhelmed when that first summer vacation begins, because you’ve forgotten what it’s…
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Working For A Living
The events surrounding the release of my book weren’t the only big happenings around the Wells house last week. In fact, we had a couple more reasons to celebrate: both D and J found summer jobs! This development could’ve been some kind of miracle: I’ve read that this summer is supposed to be one of the worst summers ever for teenaged job-seekers. Thankfully, the rate of employment for teens in my house is booming. D got a full-time job at Jim’s company. The company has a program specifically for the student-aged offspring of employees. The program has been on hiatus for the past couple of years, so we hear (Jim…