Contemplating Family Relations

 .  I have always been a romantic. I love sweet, goofy romantic movies like "Sense and Sensibility," "Jane Eyre," "Twelfth Night," "The Princess Bride," Oh, I could go on and on! I love books about courtly love, knights in shining armor, fair ladies, and riding off into the sunset. As much as I love, love all this fun, cheesy, mushy stuff, I have often thought about what is happening in our world with dating and marriage? Please, don’t misunderstand; I know that real life can't be wrapped up in a cute heart shape package.   Love and marriage relationships are complex and critical to building stable families.   What is troubling me is that people seem to want to play house, avoiding any real commitments—this not the right way of starting a good relationship.    This week, I have been thinking a lot about why courting and dating are becoming obsolete in our world?   If you have a conversation with people in the dating scene, they’ll tell you ...

  I raised 5 daughters, so I didn't see firsthand the way boys play compared to girls, but my girls did have differences in how they played. I had a couple of "tomboys" that preferred climbing trees and playing with mud and bugs. They all liked to play house, and sometimes the playing house morphed to being chased by ravenous dinosaurs. Sometimes they would go exploring in our back pasture and look for a family of foxes. I really didn’t give much thought to whether they were playing more like girls or boys.  To me, they were just.  . .   playing and having a glorious time of it! So what's the big deal? Is the way we raise our children making them fit into a role gender stereotype?   The roles of men and women have been defined since the beginning of time; however, those roles have changed. The women’s suffrage movement that began with the right to vote and then swiftly climaxed in the '70s with the feminist movement had a harvest of positive and negative fruits....

  Most of my children have young children of their own. Still, as I reflect back on the traditions developed while raising my family, I had to smile at the memories so thick I had to brush them from my mind so I could remember more. Like dominoes, one memory pushes another into consciousness. When my children were small, some of the traditions my husband and I initiated were: having family prayer each night. We would sing," Let us gather in a circle and kneel in family prayer to thank our Heavenly Father for the blessing we all share." This would get everyone to settle down and ready to pray. There was a feeling of wholeness and love as we knelt together. No, it wasn't always quiet and loving, but it was worth the effort for the times that were.   We often read together as a family.   I started having a tea party every month, and we would dress up as characters from the book we were currently reading. We all made up English royalty names for ourselves and took to addr...

    “ The Whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking” Albert Einstein I came across this quote this week and I just love it!   It gives me license to think of science in a new way. You may have had thoughts like mine when you hear science, research, and studies. Whoa that sounds technical but mostly boring! “I know, I know, I have shared your feelings but I have learned that science, and more specifically, research is vital in helping us to understand truth. That’s right truth. In the world in which we live, truth is a fundamental and essential commodity. Why? Truth helps to shape our laws and society. Without the guidance of true principles, we would have no way of regulating standards that guide our communities, educational institutions, civil laws, or our lives! So, let’s take a few minutes and learn how experiments and research are conducted.   I’ll start with the basics. There is a great children’s book called, “How Scien...

  I want to take a minute and think about difference in the patterns in intimacy of our relationships. First premarital sex-  this can be and uncomfortable topic or maybe for some it is more of a right of passage. As some young adults would put it, "no big deal". But how is it influencing our relationships? Premarital sex has existing for a long time but in the the 1960-1970 there was a significant increase. !980's level tapper off. These numbers varied between different cultures and age groups. Premarital dominoed into a significant rise in the birth to unmarried women since in 1960's where approximately 1-4 births had at least one nonmartial birth to 2007 were 39% of all births were to unmarried mothers. This something I am keening interested in these trends because to the children growing up in single parent homes and the affects it has on those children. I grew up in a single parent home because my parents were divorced. I know how hard it for one parent to raise ...

  I am a crazy mom of 5, yes 5 beautiful and oh so different girls. Despite these incongruities of personality they get along famously! This is a fact of which I am joyously grateful for! My girls have left my nest except my little caboose who is arriving at the glorious station of hormonal upheavals called teenager. Due to some financial challenges I made the decision to go back to school which has been an amazing, terrifyingly wonderful experience! I want to share what I will be learning and what outcomes it has in my life and by default my family.