Sunday afternoon found our family gathered around Grandma's dinner table, discussing my husband's crazy work schedule. After spending all night Saturday and Sunday replacing equipment at a local hospital, he was going to have to work straight into Monday as well.

"I don't like it," I said, my voice laced with disapproval. "It's when people get too tired that accidents happen."

We segued into scars and stitches, even Grandma contributing a tale...

karhin

When your child is still a perfect, pre-verbal angel, you swear up and down that you'll never do it. You are too creative to resort to bribes and threats. You'd never make a poor innocent child stay on hyper-alert during the most magical time of the year.

Yet somehow, after having more than one child, you fall prey to the oldest trick in the parental grab bag. It goes something like this:

Mom: Time to get in the car now. Let's buckle up!

Becca: I want...

karhin

No offense to my bargain-hunting friends, but you won't catch me 50 miles within the nearest store today.

Nevermind that I don't have much expendable income or that I'd have three bickering kids in tow. It's just that I hate to shop.

So when my stepson asked me if I were going to line the pockets of the major retailers today, I gave him an emphatic no.

"Why not?" he asked. "I thought women loved to shop."
"First of all, that's...

karhin

Just before lunch on Tuesday, I received a call from Hope, the assistant director at my five-year-old's day care center.

A call from child care is never good news.

"About Becca..." said Hope. "You'd better come pick her up."

Breaking my perfect attendance for the year, I left school and arrived at the center during naptime. Soothing music played while the teachers quietly tidied the rooms. Becca sat on the edge of her cot in a different...

karhin

Although my father was an Air Force pilot, I was raised a good little Mennonite girl. For those unfamiliar with this denomination, our church believes war is a sin. Most people will agree that war is hell, but most won’t go so far as to refuse serving their country in the event of a military draft. Mennonites, historically, did. Some served an Alternative Service term, which was generally clerical in nature; however, some opted for jail time rather than support war in any fashion.

...

karhin