Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “family”
@bethvogt My youngest daughter, Christa and I had an argument two weeks ago. Arguing is unusual for us. It’s unusual for me to argue with any of my adult children. That said, a rather intense verbal wrangling occurred, with both of us saying, “You wanna’ go?” at some point. It sounds better when an almost 20-year-old says it. Christa here. …
@bethvogt There are times grief throws us to our knees. We gasp for breath even as we try to grasp hold of what we’ve heard. It can’t be true. It can’t be . . . A longtime friend, someone I love and respect – someone who has shown me kindness again and again – died by suicide a few …
@bethvogt I worry about my mother-in-law every single day. I’m familiar with humorist Erma Bombeck’s assessment of worry: “Worry is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” Still, I find myself rocking away day after day. Ruth – “MiMaw” to her four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren – turns 102 years old in …
@bethvogt My son-in-love David was offered his dream job last weekend – the opportunity he’s wanted since he stepped into his chosen career field seven years ago. He wasn’t floating his resume around, looking for a new job. Now wouldn’t be the time to do that, not when he and my daughter, Amy, have a newborn daughter. Saying yes …
@bethvogt I spent the past four years writing a “Little Women gone wrong” women’s fiction series about a trio of sisters trying to discover if they can move from a truce to trusting one another. Maybe they do. Maybe they don’t. Magicians don’t reveal how they do their tricks, right? And authors don’t reveal what’s hidden between the covers of …
@bethvogt My son Josh and daughter-in-love Meagan stopped by our house on Monday. “How are you?” A simple enough question, right? Not these days. My son Josh is white. My daughter-in-love Meagan is black. Meagan backed away from me. From responding. “I don’t want to cry. I can’t cry … I won’t stop crying …” And then I held …
@bethvogt Sometimes I think my now-adult children believe I didn’t want them to grow up. Yes, there are days I miss their toddler voices. The funny ways they mangled words and their odd preferences for a particular food or a stuffed animal or a certain pair of pajamas. I’ll even admit to saying, “Why you want to leave …
Today’s blog post is pretty straightforward. With Valentine’s Day on Friday, I thought it would be fun to share a few quotes about love. “Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” Mother Teresa Now before you move on from this post because you’re not into all the forced, commercialized …
We all grow up knowing our place in our families. And that “place” determines our identity. Firstborn. Middle child. The baby. Sometimes we’re the only child. Among my two brothers and two sisters, I was the ugly one. Now before you say something like, “Surely you exaggerate,” let me assure you I’m not. I knew my place in my …
We’re eight days into the new year and may I just say I’d like a do-over? Of course, I know that’s not how life works. There’s no rewind button in life. No pause button, either. We do life in forward motion – sometimes fast-forward. Circumstances? Well, they are often beyond our control. The first week of this brand-new year has …
