DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional therapist or counselor. I am simply passing along advice that has worked for me in the past. I have been a part of four different family situations, some more successful than others. Maturity has helped me develop insights that totally escaped me in the earlier part of my life. I hope these can reach and teach those who can learn earlier than I did! HOW TO BUILD JOY INTO…
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Making a Comfy Life
The Princess Brat: An Introduction
A Joy After Loss This past Christmas was a lovely time of rejoicing, but it also brought a painfully sad reminder. The Christmas before, my younger daughter’s beloved puppy began a fast painful slide into leaving us. She was a beagle-lab mix, a beautiful black and white charmer, who suddenly developed pancreatitis. Pancreatitis is a horrible disease which can only be stopped if diagnosed in time. Somehow it didn’t show in the first tests and…
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Loving Our Bratty Dogs
Our household consists of three more-or-less adult people and two bratty dogs. I’ve mentioned the Bratty Puppy (B.P.) before, but I want to introduce you to the Head Brat (H.B.). Head Brat is a labradoodle that also came from the Humane Society up north. We brought him home when he was approximately one year old. He had the charming habits of climbing on the nearest table to survey his surroundings, eating complete loaves of bread…
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Bitter Apple Flavor for the Bratty Puppy
31 May 2016 Bitter Apple When B.P. (Bratty Puppy, that is) came to live with us, we soon purchased a bottle of bitter apple flavoring spray for the wooden furniture. Soon afterwards, all of us humans started gasping with indignation, because things became flavored with, you guessed it, bitter apple flavor. Things like our hands. And pencils. And keyboards! Gah! Meanwhile, B.P. chewed happily away on everything that looked good to him. Bitter apple? Not…
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Musical Treats
When I was in the fifth grade, my parents took me to a school meeting one night. My siblings were left with a neighbor. All of this was so unusual. My Dad often worked fourteen hour days, and my Mom didn’t drive. As for using a babysitter, that was unheard of. But there we were, with a large (for our small country school) crowd. We gathered in the lunchroom, where folding chairs were set up…
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A Perfect August Day – Keeping Cool!
Oh wow! It’s ninety-nine degrees in the Mile-High City today and I have a rare hankering to go up in the mountains, just to keep cool. I won’t, though, because of allergies and because of a horrible discomfort with mountain driving. Not just my mountain driving, mind you, but the mountain driving of others who are not practiced at it and who are unaware of the laws and practices that make mountain driving safer. It’s…
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