How to Talk to Your Kids About Money.

Man I just love reading the news. I especially like it when I find an article that confirms something I've been thinking. Yeah that might speak to my internal biases, but still... in February I wrote a post about being open with your kids about money matters then this morning I'm scouring the headlines and I find this NPR article on teaching kids about money.

Basically the article confirms that when parents openly discuss money matters with their children, the kids grow into adults that make better choices. Woo! The kids can learn and we have scientific proof.

Ok, ok... great huh? But as I came to the bottom of the story I came down from my validation drunk and noticed a problem. From the article:

Why Do We Celebrate Heartless Heroes, and What Does That Teach Our Kids?

Got your beach balls and bathing suits? It's Memorial Day weekend! So starts the the blockbuster movie season. In keeping with the spirit, and because it's still a little too cold here for me to swim, I went out and saw The Avengers yesterday.

It has everything that you'd expect from a big budget superhero movie, big bangs, big trouble, big evil villans trying to take over the world and a troop of one-liner spouting champions who save everyone from certain doom!

It all sounds great, right? I thought so too, but as I sat there ruining my bathing suit figure with too much popcorn and root beer, I was struck by how little difference there seemed to be between the villans and the heroes.

Wrap Up, Things I Learned From Lent

With the Easter holiday and the start of the soccer season things have been mighty busy in these parts, but hey, what's a little mainlined caffeine among friends? Anyway, I have been wanting to write an update on what I learned from my Lent experiment.

The Creative Journey - Beginnings

New ideas...they can be as cute as a pile of puppies. All shiny and cuddly you just want pick 'um up play patty cake with those cuddly-wuddly little faces! Whoo doggy!

So last week I wrote about the beginnings of a new project. Well I put in my yarn order, and I got a total score, some odd ends of the finest cashmere from Todd and Duncan. It's gonna suit my needs smashingly! Here it is.

Wanna Get More Liberty? You Have the Power Voter

Today North Carolina is voting on what constitues a marriage.

How heady, to think that a simple majority can decide such a question for everyone. As voters we have come to enjoy our collective power to dictate what is moral and just to all those simpletons who have the audacity to disagree with our world view.

Surviving the Creative Life - A New Project

I don't know what this is going to be yet!

It's been what... a month? Whew! I got two stories finished and sent them out to contest. In rough draft form for a brand new story I now have Chapter 1 finished and Chapter 2 almost finished. And I have two more stories underway for a contest deadline in July. But you know what? It's not enough!

This weekend, after making 18 lemon pies for my church auction and just before racing all over town to catch some of the four soccer games my kids were playing in on Sunday, I took a few hours to go down to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.