Top Posts: Home & Family
An Unexpected Gift
This is the text of a message I received in March of 2009 from a friend of Trevors of whom we had never met. "From what I've gathered over the past 24 hours, I understand that you are Trevor Grimm's mother. My name is Dexter, and I knew your son while...
Gender Stereotypes and Children
Like many young moms when I was pregnant with my gender unidentified baby I had goals of raising my child what I call "gender free." I wanted to forget about the gender stereotypes of colors and toys and allow my child to be free in their choices. ...
American’s youth is floundering through their twenties...
Whether your child is graduating from high school, undergraduate school, law school or some other form of schooling, it's very typical for them to move back in, or stay living with you until well into their twenties. But, how long is too long? Too many...
Family Rituals: Roses & Thorns
Before I had a family of my own, I had grand visions of the time we would spend at the dinner table each evening, everyone cheerfully sharing a nutritious meal and discussing the day, our smiling faces cast in the golden candlelight. Once my husband...
Family Memories: What We Keep
In my grandparents' rambling Victorian house in Maryland, one room was always off limits—a small windowless space on the second floor, just off the main bedroom. "Believe me, you don't want to go in there," my mother would assure me, when I asked if...
Shoelaces, nail clippers, tin foil, and bottle caps
When we went to Chicago to clean out my son, Trev's apartment, the place where he accidentally overdosed on heroin a couple of weeks earlier, there was not one pair of his shoes that still had shoelaces in them. In his bedroom, tell tale signs of his...
Parenthood: The Struggle to Slow Down
As a recovering speed demon, I struggle to "be in the moment," to achieve that Zen-like state that helps me appreciate the life I know I am lucky to have. I rush things – I speak quickly, move fast, and make swift decisions. I often try to do several...
The beagle is a conehead
Our seven month old beagle, Doty, was spayed last week. The night before last we noticed her incision was bulging. We figured it was a hernia, so we took her to the vet first thing the next morning. The vet told us that it was not a hernia, but rather...
What is a BoylenOver?
I have been writing under the name Boylen over for about 12 years now. My column used to appear in the Prairie du Chien (Wisconsin) Courier Press, and I hope some of my former readers find me here, as well as the current readers of Boylen Over in the...
GoodBlogs...Now With FIVE Votes Per Day!
I couldn't handle it anymore. All these great posts and I only get three votes a day!? I was out by 10:29 this morning. Ridiculous! And I figured if I was feeling that way, then there was a good chance that other members were feeling that way too. ...