New Shoes in the Rain

Good morning, friends.  I don't often post on Saturdays, but here goes.... I'm a parent.  Specifically, I'm a stepparent, but my kids know that they are MY kids as well as their mom's.  I have a lot of thoughts about parenting at this stage of life. First off, I was raised by my parents, two products of the Depression and natives of Huntington, West Virginia.  Neither grew up in privilege and I certainly didn't either.  I'm the middle of three sons in our household, each of my parents was married to another partner prior to their own marriage.  My father had two children in his first marriage, my mother had none. They did the best they could, I guess, as I grew up in the era of a single breadwinner in the family.  So child-rearing was often left to my mother, as my dad's "job" was to go out into the world and earn the money that we needed to live on. I don't think I ever fully understood my father.  He had a good mind, but because he was raised

Happy Wednesday, friends.  Or, I think it's Wednesday.  I'm on vacation this week, so it's hard to know! Short post today.  Our daughter and her family drove here from their home in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado to spend the week with us.  And it's been wonderful to have them here and to have our entire immediate family (our kids and their families) together at last. We've had pizza parties, we had a celebratory dinner at a special place in the region, we're going to have dinner together here tonight and the "local" grandkids are here for the day to spend time with their Colorado cousins. My wife and I are so immensely grateful that our national and regional situation relative to the coronavirus has finally allowed us to be together, thanks to the vaccinations of all of the adults in our circle. I sincerely hope that the recent decline in case counts and restrictions has permitted you to spend more time with those whom you love, too!