Looking back: 9 things we did right as parents

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Looking back: 9 things we did right as parents

carpenter family portrait

I didn't support my youngest when she wanted to change majors — and universities — midway through her college career.

I didn't call parents to tattle on their mean girls (and boys) who made a living hell of several academic years for my middle daughter.

I didn't demand my oldest...

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Changing seasons: Thoughts on giving my adult daughters their baby books

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Changing seasons: Thoughts on giving my adult daughters their baby books

baby books

"It would be good for me to know those things," my middle daughter sighed into the phone the other day. And she's right.

We were on the phone, discussing challenges she faces with her middle child, my second grandson. There is hope, I pointed out, a...

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Life Reimagined? Call mine Life Reenhanced

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cairns

I'm firmly entrenched in life's second act — or is this the third? — and all about me are folks in the same phase of life making the most of the opportunity to rework their lives in order to make it all they imagine it can be.

It's impossible to miss the wave of boomers...

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9 things I wish were still around

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9 things I wish were still around

I recently saw an advertisement for Jiffy Pop popcorn, and I thought to myself, THAT is something I need to pack in my grandma bag to share with my grandsons next time.

Considering their delight in watching air-popped popcorn pop — and attempting to sing the Too Pooped to Pop song while we watch — I imagine Bubby and Mac would get quite a thrill out of watching the Jiffy Pop foil top grow as kernels pop and puff up inside.

watching popcorn pop 

Jiffy Pop has been around forever, it seems...

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Why heads butt in an empty nest

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Why heads butt in an empty nest

Much of the time that I worked at the local newspaper was spent in a small department. I was the special sections editor for several years and had, during the best of times, three staff writers who worked at desks nearby. (Plus a photographer and a couple shared designers, but their desks were elsewhere.)

raised hands

The great thing about our small department was that when one of us had a question regarding grammar or punctuation or AP Style, rather than look it up in...

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