There was an article – http://www.telegram.com/article/20130430/NEWS/130429640&nocache=1 published the other day in the paper that brought up some interesting points. I’m not pro-spanking either, but I hated that article. I think that it was condescending and really talked down to parents. Normal parents don’t hate their children and hit them for fun, and they don’t do it …

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Relationships are complicated.  And there’s really no way to figure out what ties people together.  Children and bank accounts, shared responsibilities and obligations.  One thing I never doubt with Marc is that the two of us are a team, a partnership, working together towards the same goals.  It’s been an absolute, undeniable reality from the …

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It was my toughest pregnancy, by far.  I ended up on nausea meds with my other two kids, but with Julianna, the morning sickness seemed worse.  And the itching – oh God, the itching.  My skin was so dry, and nothing seemed to help.  I was contracting all the time, and I wanted to have …

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I feel like my kids don’t get sick all that often.  Exception for the past month, which included two concussions and a thumb injury, they don’t ever get injured.  And I’ve never had allergies before in my life.  Julianna, in particular, tends to be a really healthy kid (due in large part to nursing – …

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I don’t like it.  Mostly because it’s completely thankless, never ending, and really, it’s like shoving a big rock up hill.  Even if you manage to get it up to the top of the hill, the kids are only going to come home from school and it’ll be a disaster by dinner. But today’s my …

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So that’s not a good mantra.  I understand that.  And really, with the drama and intensity that my kids have when it comes to temper tantrums, it’s not a good prescription for my own mental health.  There has to be distance, for their sake as well as my own.  If I allowed myself to get …

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Jessica Mary is ten years old.  And quite independent, most of the time.   Specifically, she never sleeps in our bed anymore.   Which is normal and natural and perfectly fine… except that last night, Marc and Sam were sleeping over at Battleship Cove with the Boy Scouts, and Jessie crawled into bed with me …

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I’m back!  I took a week or so off from blogging and writing, not intentionally, really.  Part of it was that I had all the kids home for vacation, so things were crazy and hectic.  But a bigger part of it was that I had just finished taking a book proposal class and needed some …

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It’s hard for me.   For a whole bunch of different reasons – one of which I’m pretty sure is because I had my kids late (compared to my siblings – I was 29, with three younger siblings and nine nieces and nephews before Jessica was born).  I had also been the family babysitter for …

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