If one more person says to me “well that is just how teenage boys behave,” I will hurl. Whose teenage boys? In what country? In what decade? It reminds me of all the wise tales women shared with me during my first pregnancy. Everyone wanted to tell me about having a baby–especially the gory, awful birth gone…
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How to Decide to Leave An Addict?
I remember standing in the sunny kitchen of our big, big house. My toddler and infant playing on the floor in the sunlight. I asked my Al-Anon buddy on the phone; “is it time to leave him?’ When do you leave an addict? The woman I spoke with that morning knew the question well. Two children of…
How to Find the Best Free to Luxury Camping
The differences between free to luxury camping are the amenities. Think basic room with four walls and a bed for your free camping–a Motel 6. While in a Grand Hotel, say the Waldorf Astoria NY, NY, there are still 4 walls and a bed but vastly different amenities. Often called disbursement camping, free camping on…
What you Need to Know to Easily get your Child’s Passport
So you decided on a family trip out of the country. You found a time, set the budget, picked up plane tickets and booked the lodging. Now to get your child’s passport. Where do you start? Getting ready for a trip in the states? Take a look our camping prep for a 3 week trip….
How to Save Your Relationship with Your Teenager
Why am I spending the precious $100 on something as frivolous as breakfast at the Village Inn on Sunday morning? Answer: to save a life–mainly my life and my teenager’s life. Between closing a business, moving and starting to blog my budget is stretched tight. $100 a month is huge for me–a lot of cash…
Children of Addicts: Who Is Parenting the Children?
I remember kneeling to pray between the doors to my two boys rooms. Who is parenting the children I thought. Children of addicts struggle with the long-term effects of family trauma. Lord, I cried out, “I don’t know what to do. I am an angry exhausted parent. I say things I don’t mean, get frustrated…
Resources for Children in Addictive Families
My first child laughed a lot. The angry tension between his Dad and I only made him laugh more. At times this calmed us down and we laughed too. According to the Mayo Clinic laughter can: Stimulate many organs. Laughter enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air, stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles, and increases the…
I am Not My Addiction: God Says I Am
I am not my addiction. I am a child of God. Hello, My name is Tanya and I am a codependent. Hello, my name is Sally and I am an alcoholic. Phrases so iconic in our culture that anyone can finish the sentence for you. God never design me to be anything but his child. When…
Giving Out of Nothing: God Provides for Widows
My second marriage sat crumbling in the corner of our big, big house. Going forward one more day took extra effort on my part. God provides for widows and orphans. Yet, I was not a widow. No instead addiction just walked off with my husband and marriage at Christmas a month earlier. Not a widow…
12 Step APPs Work the AA Twelve Steps on Your Smart Phone, Read This!
The last thing I want, after I hop into my cozy bed at night to do my daily 10th step work, is to have to get up and look for my pen and my journal. Uggh, it is cold here at night in Colorado 9 months out of the year. These 12 step apps simplify…