When my daughter Emma was little we thought she was quirky. She always walked on tippy toes, she always told you exactly what she was thinking, she always talked in absolutes like I never and you always. She was pretty even tempered but had to do things in a certain order or way, shake up her routine and her day could be ruined. Emma was sick a fair amount, she had tummy troubles and aches and pains that no doctor could figure out. She missed a fair share of school but when she was there she

Remember when we all sat down together to dinner? Remember when it was a time of visiting and laughing and catching up?

Well maybe you didn't have those dinners, or maybe you stopped having those dinners when life changed. I know we did! As kids grew and grew up, getting lives and families of their own we got out of the habit and routine of family dinners. I also began to realize that even though my husbands family lives in the same town we do we were beginning to see them less and less often

The holidays are over. The decorations are coming down and, it seems, too often we end up packing away our holiday cheer along with the ornaments and wrapping paper. Families go from spending all day playing together to spending all day working alone in their emotional/mental cubicles. The last few Christmas cookies grow stale on the counter because, quite frankly, they just don’t taste the same after the fact. This is an interesting and conflicted time of the year. Society tells us we should

According to the wise and immortal Tevye, without traditions our lives would be as shakey as a fiddler on the roof. I have found this to be true as well. Without our traditions, our culture, who are we? Tevye had his traditions challenged when his three oldest daughters chose to break tradition and marry a man of their own choosing. Each one straying farther and farther from the tradtions that had been passed down and respected since before remembering. Yet as wise as that milkman was, he

Living with Tourette Syndrome.  Can it be done?  Is it hard?  Is it genetic?  If I have it, will my children have it?  Is there a relief?  What causes it?  Will it go away?  Can it be treated?  Cured? 

These are all good questions.  I've asked myself all of these at one point or another.  You see, I have Tourettes.

A little background.  I can remember the first time I realized something was wrong; I was in kindergarten.  My

Who among us loves it when the kids are fighting?

I hate chaos and loud ugly voices. I didn't realize how much until my own kids were very young and fighting over a toy one day. So I did what I think most young parents do; first I tried talking to them about sharing and being nice, when that didn't work we progressed to "fixing it for them" you give that back to her!!! Over the next few days it seemed like the arguing was getting worse and I was yelling a lot and no one was every happy about