When my nephew planned to visit us over spring break, I panicked. How do you entertain a 16-year-old boy for four days? I thought he might like the play Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center, a witty comedy with lots of audience participation. I logged onto the Kennedy Center’s website and scanned the available [...]
Filed under: Donating, Family, Giving, In the Neighborhood | No Comments »
Earlier this month it was my honor to deliver the commencement address at my alma mater high school in Bellefontaine, Ohio. There’s always something safe about going home. Mary Rutan Park still has its four tennis courts and the pool is still open from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
As I encouraged Bellefontaine’s 202 [...]
Filed under: Children, Education, Family, In the Neighborhood | 2 Comments »
Over the last few months, three friends have told me about their family dramas where someone hasn’t talked to someone in decades. While they repeat the story to me with either sorrow or defiance, their sense of loss always bulldozes through, despite their best efforts to suppress it.
Anna’s father ignored her after he remarried several [...]
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The world needs more good daddies. And so I convinced my husband to join me on a two-week service vacation at a children’s orphanage in Peru this past March with the ulterior motive of providing the kids with the chance – maybe their only one – to have a positive experience with a wonderful male [...]
Filed under: Children, Family, International | 4 Comments »
Growing up, my family loved playing games. Even now, on those rare occasions when we’re all in once place, three generations of us spend hours playing some fast-thinking word game, cards, or whatever else shows up at the game table. I have decades of good memories playing family games together, and aside from one of [...]
Filed under: Family, Homelessness | 1 Comment »
I have always been kind of cheap. Really, I re-gift like a pro and have a drawer full of presents – all bought on clearance – that I put in used gift bags with recycled tissue paper and can still deliver with the sincerity of a 1960’s Welcome Wagon hostess. My friends all know this [...]
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I could not wait for Friday, April 20! Right after work was the start of a long-awaited weekend getaway with my very special guy. For months we had planned this weekend for just the two us, and visions of bed and breakfasts, wineries and beautiful mountain scenery motivated us through that thing they [...]
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Going back to the Ronald McDonald House at night is like going back to my parents’ home. There’s a fire burning in the fireplace and a plate of food set aside in the fridge just for me.
Written by a mother staying at the Ronald McDonald House, her entry in the house journal says it [...]
Filed under: Children, Disease, Family | 1 Comment »
Sometimes a service project flops. The good news is that my “failed” volunteer project happened while I was in Hawaii (nothing can go too badly in Hawaii, right)?
While planning this dream vacation, my friend and I resurrected a service project I did with a family-focused non-profit in Honolulu back in 2000. The project, [...]
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May 5 – the perfect Saturday for horses and mint juleps and the Kentucky Derby. It was also the perfect day for another horse event –helping horseback riders who had autism, retardation and spinal bifida.
The project was organized by “Single Volunteers,” a non-profit that – you guessed it – offers service projects for [...]
Filed under: Animals, Family | 1 Comment »