September 2012

International travel with the kids. As these words sunk in, I began to have doubts. Were we crazy? Was I going to regret this? If you're reading this and grappling with a similar decision, you may be asking yourself the same questions. Lest you begin to have doubts too, rest assured,…

  We meet in a sunny breakfast nook on another scorching summer day. The windows around us let in so much light we might as well be outside. Meg Medina's eyes focus on the deck just outside the sliding glass door. "That's where I'd be - if it weren't so…

Janie Williams of Richmond, mother of two boys, 14 and 17, says that growing up, her parents did not talk to her or her brother about alcohol. It was understood that you were just not supposed to drink. So she resolved that with her own children she would start this…

This summer my family took a cross-country trip. No, not in a car, silly. We Moores develop homicidal tendencies when we spend too much time (that is, anything longer than 30 minutes) in the car together, which means we are not getting-there-is-halfthe- fun people. We are the opposite. We would…

What is the point exactly? That's what I want to know. It's the question I ask, silently, every time I hear a mother chronicling every last detail of her agonizing labor and delivery story to a wide-eyed woman with a swollen belly; or every time I hear a father dispatching…

It seems the inevitable has arrived. I feel like I just wrote my last Publisher's Note, refusing to accept August as back-to-school month. But here we are in September, and there is no more putting off the return to school... not legally anyway (I had no idea truancy was an…

Growing A Business While Raising A Family I am not afraid to admit it, I have a full plate. I often say my glass is entirely full. Do you remember learning about the meniscus in science class - that little rounded shape that forms on top of a glass of…

Developing Character through Theater Arts When the curtain goes up and the lights go on at a Christian Youth Theater production, audiences receive a quality Broadway-style treat. But it’s not just the close to a hundred smiling kids or the elaborate sets that impress. Eleven years ago, Donna Amadee and…

Advising a teenager is an art that few have mastered - especially when it comes to money management. During our children's teen years, we basically are trying to keep the bumpers on, letting them have minor crashes while we help steer them between the lines. Their finances should follow the…

  Present in 6 to 8 percent of one-year-olds, with reported rates as high as 10 percent, food allergy is a problem that affects many families. Although the rate of food allergy falls progressively until late childhood, it then stabilizes at about 3 to 4 percent. That translates into about…

Parental Guidance Q: What are some indicators that a child is old enough to get off the bus and stay at home by himself after school until i get home from work around dinner time? My son is 10 and i think he is ready, but some of my friends…

Breakfast for Lunch Spread peanut butter or SunButter on multi-grain waffles. Or make an easy fruit compote for a dip: Combine 1 cup of blueberries/blackberries/cherries in a small sauce pan with 1/3 cup orange juice, 1 cinnamon stick, and ½ tsp vanilla extract. Bring to a low boil, then reduce…

Use color and design to hallmark the seasons when you create a set of mosaic-style coasters. At vMFA, look for timeless inspiration in late-second or early-third-century fl ooring that once was part of a hallway in a Roman home. What you need: Construction paper or other colored paper Four white…