TMI Lauri

There are some similarities between my childhood and that of my children. I recognize that. My kids have divorced parents like I did. I had a step mom when I was a teenager, too. My twelve year old has some of the same attitude problems I had.  I got "bullied" all the time. Let's face it, kids are softer now than they used to be. My husband cracked his skull when he was a kid. If I remember correctly, his older brothers were using the two younger boys as bowling balls with sofa cushions belted to them. This happened often. Four boys is a dangerous household! Being the youngest of the four could have been deadly. Kids today have it pretty easy by comparison. I am a fairly traditional mom but my kids still have few real struggles. I know that not everyone struggled like I did and I know that kids don't even have some of the options I did but here are just a few of the things my kids don't understand. 1. "Bullying" was tolerated. I put that in quot

I know that everyone who gets married wants everything to be perfect. I know that when we plan weddings we want memorable and beautiful. Over the years, my husband has been to about 70 weddings and I have gone to my fair share as well. My husband and I decided early in our planning that as long as we were both there and married at the end of the day, the details weren't important. The more little things you include, the more you have to stress over. Here are the details we opted to skip because we never remembered those details from weddings we have attended. Some things we left out because the cliché was never important to us. Note: if these things are important to you, include them! Just don't be upset if others aren't focused on them. After all, it is YOUR day! 1. Center pieces. I have seen some beautiful center pieces, but where do they go after the wedding!? My mom used oil lamps.  They were beautiful and each member of the bridal party got to take one home. I be