Search Results for: blog are you living up to your own expectations

Driver Dogs Trained in New Zealand

I can’t drive stick.  I’m all right if there’s no one around me, but the second I’m at a stop sign and there are people behind me, I stall and can’t get the car to start again. So I’m feeling rather ashamed right now, because a group of dogs in New Zealand are doing what I can’t.  These rescue dogs have been trained to drive cars.  BBC News has the report. The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in New Zealand capital Auckland were tired of families surrendering dogs and saying that the pooches were too hard to … Continue reading →

Life Goes On With Toddler And Baby

I am not sure what I expected life with a baby and a toddler would be like. In fact, I am pretty sure that I did not have any expectations. For some reason, I simply did not think about what it would be like until Blake came along. In hindsight it is probably best that I did not have any preexisting expectations because they may have been completely different than what has actually transpired during the past seven months. The first couple of months were a blur, as things normally are after the arrival of a new baby. Time passed, … Continue reading →

Is There Such a Thing as Too Nice?

Is there such a thing as being too nice? When we’re in a relationship with someone, particularly when we’re married, we learn the answer to that question: yes. It’s not necessarily that too much niceness is bad, but that what one person might interpret as nice isn’t so great for the other. A friend and I were talking about that today in relation to our husbands. She shared that one time, her husband managed to bring home a big chocolate cake on the first day she was starting a new diet, something he knew about. Another time he kept filling … Continue reading →

Making Birthdays Special – Or Not

Marriage, like most of life, is all about seeing things from someone else’s point of view. I’ve had to learn that Jonathan copes with things, especially arguments and emotions, much more slowly than I do. That’s not what I wanted to discuss today. What I wanted to discuss is how marriage can sometimes force you to see the world in an entirely new way. Sounds like I’m talking about something life changing, right? Not really, though it’s certainly hard for me to process. I’m talking about presents. Jon’s birthday is today, and for months I had no idea what to … Continue reading →

Be A Cycle Breaker

Sometimes as a mother, I look at my children and try to imagine them as teenagers. Even harder is trying to imagine them as adults. Will they ever understand how much I love them? Will they hold on to the negative things I did as a mother instead of seeing me for who I was striving to be? I worry all the time about the impact that I am having on them long-term. I don’t know if it is because of my own childhood, my psychology background, or my worrying nature, but I struggle every day with overcoming my self. … Continue reading →

The Vacuum- My Nemesis

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I may have mentioned a time or two that I really dislike vacuuming. I don’t know what it is but to me it’s the most pointless thing I do in my home. I know it ‘s not, I know vacuuming keeps the carpet clean and extends it’s life, but I don’t like it. Believe it or not I actually scrub my kitchen floor more often than I vacuum, and I do it on my hands and knees. There is no logic to my likes and dislikes. I kept telling myself it was the vacuum I disliked and not the actual … Continue reading →

When Two Become One

I grew up in a blended family. Maybe that is why I’m a little leery about ever having another one. My mom was a single mother for several years. She had three children and remarried a man who had three children of his own, who happened to be the same ages. Some of us were happy about the marriage, some of us weren’t at the time, and others just didn’t have a clue what was going on. Those first couple of years were pure chaos. All four of us girls had to share a room, while the two boys shared … Continue reading →

Is Worry Creating Needless Drama In Your Life?

Worry certainly sounds like a negative activity, and it is, but when you’re immersed in it, worry feels like the most logical, positive direction. How else can you prevent bad things from happening – or be prepared to deal with them when they do – if you don’t worry about them first? Unfortunately, “bad” things are going to happen regardless of any amount of obsessive thinking you do trying to anticipate, prevent and prepare for them. All worry does is keep you living in a perpetual state of anxiety for no good reason at all, and what kind of a … Continue reading →

Author Writes to Help Parents of Special Needs Children

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If you are a parent struggling through the recent diagnosis of your child, you may be feeling completely alone. However, while you are most definitely angry, sad and scared, you are definitely not alone. Judy Winter proves that in her book Breakthrough Parenting for Children with Special Needs: Raising the Bar of Expectations. As the mom to a boy with cerebral palsy, she knows what she’s talking about. Her own son Eric passed away at the age of 12, and she has dedicated her career to helping other children and their families live the best lives. This book offers a … Continue reading →

What Do You Want in a Spouse?

I remember back to when I was about eleven, making a list of all the things I wanted in a husband. I’d been taught that if you write your goals down, they were more likely to come true, so why not set a goal about the kind of guy I wanted to marry? Some of the things on my list were practical, and some weren’t. I had a major crush on Pierce Brosnan at the time (still do, if you want to know the truth) and I decided that I was going to marry someone with dark hair and blue … Continue reading →