Two weeks is enough, I heard myself saying to my spouse on the phone. This was getting hard and triggering all kinds of angry feelings. I was alone again in this marriage. I could just feel the back of my neck tightening when he said there were no truckloads back to Colorado. Connection Through Anger…
Family
Are Teens Really Stupid? Parenting Teenagers Guide
I am happy to republish this post with a telling interview on parenting teens by the author of the book. Click the interview below! My almost teen said to me the other day, “Why do people not like teenagers?’ That broke my heart! Why do people not like teenagers I thought to myself? Not so…
Signs You Might be Stress Eating
Five pounds, six pounds, seven pounds, it seems to just creep up on me. I think I have lost 100 lbs. The same 10 lbs over and over for the last 10 years. Are You A Stress Eater? Do you find yourself hunting in the cabinets for food when others around you are angry or…
Feeling Stressed About the Addict in Your Family?
Al-Anon describes alcoholism as a family disease. In fact, each alcoholic is said to affect five other people. Most of the time these are family members. Our lives are so busy, sometimes it can feel hard to breathe. Add a person(s) recovering from addiction in the mix and we feel like we are drowning. Reverse…
Codependent Families: What does not Help!
Stuck! For years, I felt that the Joyous Family was stuck. Just stuck in the same rotating issues over and over again. Crisis after crisis just kept banging on our door. Why, even after sobriety, did family life still feel, well, yucky? What keeps codependent families stuck? Then I walked into a Christian seminar by…
Are You a Codependent Parent?
Holding that first baby in my arms I felt my heart enlarged ten sizes. I was in love. A deep “I will die for you right now”, kind of love. I still feel that way about my children. Maybe too much? Hovering Codependent Parent There is the caricature of the stay-at-home mom who lives…
Why Codependency Turns You Away From God
Could you hear me, if I told you codependency is only a symptom? The way you choose to respond to a relationship or depend on a relationship is learned. Learned really? Yes! You learned it really early in your life with your primary caregivers. Now as with all learned behaviors you can blame, shame and…
Dare to Love A Difficult Person
Dare to love the most difficult person in your life this Valentine’s month. We all have them–a person in our lives that we struggle to love. Maybe, it is only a season with a difficult toddler, teen, spouse or co-worker. In Al-Anon we say that living with an addict/alcoholic is too much for most of…
Top 10 Tips for Emotionally Sober Holidays
Emotionally Sober denotes the awareness of our emotions as they happen and the ability to choose our responses with maturity and clarity. How do you do this during the busy holiday season? If you are like most families, you run from one holiday party to another. You grab your phone to shop Amazon in between events…
Mother’s Milestone: When Your Baby Turns 13
This is a momentous Mother’s Day, yet another Mother’s Milestone. I am the proud Mom of 2005 model brand new teenager. Although he sometimes gets frustrated with my slowness to absorb his new young “man-ness”, this marvelous change enhances us both. You may have to check back with me in a few years, but I…
