I truly believe that Leman’s “Have a New X by Friday” series is really just a gimmick. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s his way of capturing your attention: if you drastically change the way you act as a parent, a wife, a friend, then you will see dramatic changes quickly in those you love. He’s right. In his book, Have a New Teenager...

Did you realize that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the time spouses and family members are most ignored? Why? We get so busy doing things for our families that we don't take the time to spend with them. So take a few moments and express your devotion to each other. Are you mutually devoted? Then declare it! There is nothing quite...

“It’s my party and I can cry if I want to.” This was my attitude when my husband, a Marine pilot, was deployed over the holidays. His four deployments have separated us over four Thanksgivings, four Christmases, and of course, four Valentine’s Days. It was hard, especially the first few times. Then I discovered the secret of not only coping,...

If you've been married for more than a couple of days you've probably already figured out that communication in marriage is really important.  Being intentional about the way you communicate with your spouse sets a firm foundation for a solid relationship. The same rules apply when it comes to using Facebook once you're married.  Facebook is...

Are you in the middle of a moving your family to a new house, a new town, or maybe even a new state or country?  I have a lot of experience with moving.  As a single person, I moved from home to college, to Louisiana, to South Carolina, and then to Hungary.  Ron and I set off to France as newlyweds.  We moved from the west of Paris to Lyon, then...

This fall my 18 year-old son, my first-born, my newly minted young adult, will be leaving home to start university.  I have never been an overly protective mother.  Over the years, he has often left home, even for extended times.  At 8 years old, he spent a week with members of our extended family whom he barely knew. After that there were...

When my children were first born, I did something radical. I didn't really decorate their room. Part of it was a money issue; we had so little cash, and we were trying to save for a down payment for a house. I thought putting our money into an apartment sized washing machine would be a far better use of our funds than buying cute little Noah's Ark...