We had adopted before. We had therapeutic parent training. We love teenagers. Surely, we would rock at older child adoption. Maybe you weren’t nearly as optimistic and naive as us, but chances are that there is a disconnect between your expectations and what you are experiencing. Maybe you are prepping for an older child adoption, […]
Have you ever grown a boatload of tomatoes and then wondered what to do with them? You don’t want them to go to waste, but you’re also really, really busy. Canning sounds fun…until you think about blanching and peeling all those tomatoes. This year we made spaghetti sauce for the first time. I use the […]
Maybe it’s the transition to a new season (ex: back-to-school), and your child is throwing lots of tantrums. Maybe it’s punishments creating more angry behaviors. You take away a privilege for lying, and your child retaliates by throwing something at you. Sometimes we get in these bad behavior cycles with our kids where it seems […]
Kids with challenging behaviors try our patience. And that’s probably the understatement of the century. It’s easy to think of them as a problem child. While they just need better tools to manage their big emotions, it doesn’t change how easily their behaviors push our buttons. Enter angry mom. Anger seems to be my go-to […]
A lot of parents struggle when raising kids with ongoing challenging behaviors. They want what’s best for their children and have searched high and low for answers. Instead, they have a handful of diagnoses and little hope for the future. Besides feeling exhausted, they also feel like they failed their child. I’ve been there. Our […]
If you’re drowning in your own harvest of cucumbers or love a great dill pickle, you need this recipe in your life. Our cucumber plants are producing like crazy this year. We’re slicing and dipping, making Korean cucumber salad, giving them away, and, my favorite, pickling them. I love this recipe because you don’t need […]
Maybe your kids are young adults and finding their way in the world. Maybe you have a child who needed an out-of-home placement. You may have left off on good terms or maybe you’re both hurt and angry. We’ve actually had all of that happen with all the feels that go with it. No matter […]
I’ve been chatting with a lot of moms who are a sort of crossroads with their older adopted child. There is hurt, resentment, and bewilderment from both sides. The kids are rejecting their family in as many ways possible. The parents are wondering where they went wrong. We’ve been there. In October 2015, we were […]