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Going to grandma's
Danny, my four-year-old, had the right idea to buy birthday cake. After all, it was my mother's 78th. This time last year we celebrated her birthday with a phone call to her room at an Iowa nursing home. This year, we celebrated it in her apartment at our house. We are among 51.4 million American families who have two or more generations living under the same roof. Some ethnic groups, such as Hispanics and Asians , have always encouraged these type of living arrangements. It is a cultural strength to maintain strong family bonds.Caucasian Americans have become more accepting of the arrangement as a consequence of the economy and, in the last two years, multi-generational housing arrangements have grown by 25 percent, My mother grew up in a multi-generational household with her parents, two brothers, and my great-grandmother. When you ask my mother who taught her to knit, she'll tell you her grandmother. While this arrangement might have had its challenges fo...
How to face life when you have a pansy temperament
When it comes to life's character building moments, I can be such a pansy. And like a pansy, I'm really good at putting on a bright flowery show as if I have an abundance of inner strength. But I'm really only one strong wind from having my blossoms blown off. There are times I wish I had the steady inner oak tree fortitude that some of my friends seem to possess when faced with challenging circumstances. They might be scarred by a bolt of lightening but they're still standing as strong as they ever were. Instead, a strong freeze could wither my roots if I don't pay attention to the temperature of the soil I'm grounded in and spend time providing protective cover. This last year has been particularly marked by circumstances which haven't gone as smoothly as I would have preferred. My preference for life is like the pansy's: full sunlight in moderate temperatures with plenty of water. Lately, though, several blustery winds and extreme dips and ...

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