The DHX: The Doughtie Houses Exchange

Sounds Inside my Head: Interesting thoughts - “I have to say that if my husband hadn’t forgiven his ex by now, after almost 20 years of being apart and 11 years of life with me, I’d be hurt. . . . I’m glad he’s forgiven her - it means he’s also let go of his [...]

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“I am going to lose more than I win. There are many times when, despite my efforts, I will lose children to poverty, ignorance, and, most tragically, a society that embraces mediocrity.
“But that doesn’t paralyze me anymore. I have a code, as any good teacher or parent must have. It doesn’t matter if the odds [...]

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Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith
While it’s true kids don’t choose their stepparents, it’s also true that they also don’t choose their fifth grade teachers. That doesn’t stop Rafe Esquith.
Rafe Esquith teaches in an inner city school where the kids have rough backgrounds and lots [...]

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“You have more power than you think.” — an old CalFed commercial

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Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.
It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.
– Mary Oliver

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Check out this confession post and all of the confession comments over at Mormon Mommy Wars. Sometimes in the mom-stepmom world, I think we get super careful about doing a good enough job because we know another woman is going to be seeing and hearing all kinds of intimate details about what we’re doing and [...]

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“Honor any resistance you feel inside yourself.” — paraphrase from a yoga video
What if we applied this to our stepfamily situations? In yoga it’s important to honor the resistance we feel because we need to be careful not to injure ourselves while stretching, and because change and trasformation happen gradually. (I’m an occasional yoga video [...]

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That’s my favorite line I’ve ever thought up on the fly.
The kids were rough housing. I heard glass break. I came out and saw a blue handblown vase I’d bought from my local Mexican folk art store broken on the floor. The kids were sitting still with wide eyes looking scared — both of the [...]

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“We need to be the people we want our children to become.” — Rafe Esquith, Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire

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I just did a search for the word “stepmom” on Flickr and found some heartwarming pictures.

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