Good Night John Boy
I remember the ritual of going to sleep at my parents house when I was growing up. There was always a routine. Everyone would wash their face and spend their time in the bathroom. Then we’d all pile into our...
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My Little Picassos
My children bring home so many art projects from school that I just didn’t know where to go with it all. Each paper is so precious to me that I didn’t want to just throw it away so I finally devised a system...
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King of the House
When I was growing up my church always sponsored a Three King’s dinner. The dinner was held on January 6th (the 12th day after Christmas). Known as Epiphany in the Christian calendar, it’s the...
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Backyard Camping
A special treat for my kids is backyard camping. Every weekend after the last day of school we celebrate the onset of summer by putting the tent up in our backyard and sleeping outside for the weekend. We get out...
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Reliving Vacation Memories
Each year my family goes on vacation we buy a special Christmas ornament as a memento. We’ve been lucky to find Christmas ornaments at most of our vacation spots. If we’re not able to find an ornament, we...
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A Cultural Dinner
Every couple of months our family hosts a special dinner. We decide upon a place that we would like to learn more about and plan the event accordingly. Every family member is responsible for doing their own...
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ColorFest
My family invented a new holiday called ColorFest. It occurs once every three months. We mark the days on the calendar at the beginning of the year and look forward to the celebration. ColorFest is all...
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Our Special Red Plate
Our family has a special red plate that we were given as a gift at the birth of our first child (12 years ago.) The beautiful red plate has the words "You are Special Today" written on it. The plate is used...
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Dinner is Sharing Time
Every night my family sits down at dinner together we each take a turn going around the table and saying something we learned that day as well as something good that happened that day. It gives us a chance to...
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A Calendar to Live By
Once our son entered kindergarten, our schedule just seemed to get busier and busier. In addition to the many social and work commitments that my husband and I already had, we added T-ball, birthday parties...
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Bringing the Outside In
My children love exploring the great outdoors. Every fall we’ve made it a tradition to spend an entire Sunday afternoon in mid-October exploring the woods behind Grandma’s house. We count the squirrels...
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Family TV Night
For some people, watching television is thought of as a negative, but for my family, we've turned it into a positive. I don't allow my children to watch hours upon hours of unsupervised TV. Instead I take...
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Barn Dance
We live on a farmette with a few barns that we do not use for farming purposes. Several years ago we decided to turn our annual family reunion into an annual Hoe Down and Barn Dance. We wrap the...
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The Family (bundt cake) Recipe
Long after the bundt cake trend went cold, I found our old bundt pan tucked in a dusty corner of the kitchen cabinets. Chris, my son, was curious about the odd shaped pan, so I tried to explain the...
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Farm to Market Days
Summer may begin in June but, for many parts of the country, gardens don’t reach their peak until August. Modern grocery stores manage to keep us satisfied with produce year round, but there is...
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