The Marriage Blog Week in Review for April 28 – May 4

Lyn and I were joined by a familiar face last week, a former regular Marriage Blog contributor: Heather Long. Between the three of us we had a fair amount to say. In case you missed any of it, here’s your handy Week in Review! Monday, April 28 I suggested ways to recession proof your marriage with dinner. (And hopefully enhance it in the process.) Lyn addressed the problem of spending too much time online. (A problem both husbands and wives are guilty of.) Tuesday, April 29 Lyn contemplated the song “love me or let me go” and how it applies … Continue reading

Danger in Not Turning in at the Same Time?

Yesterday in Pets I wrote about the case of the Wooded Rapist and the dog that helped crack the case. After I posted it, I made sure all the doors were locked, turned off all the lights, and then headed up to bed. Wayne was already in bed, so was my mom. Not unusual. Not out of the norm. It’s how the routine goes most nights. If I’m not staying up to bang out a few more articles at the keyboard, I have homecaring duties to tend to. Every so often it’s not work, but a chance to catch up … Continue reading

Mickey Mouse is Back: New Shorts to Air on TV

Mickey Mouse is back.  Whether this is the reinvention that Disney execs promised years ago remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Disney’s most famous character is going to be a star yet again.  Mickey’s returning to his roots, in a series of animated shorts to debut on the Disney Channel and Disney Online this June.  Entertainment Weekly has the details. Disney Television Animation has been hard at work creating 19 new shorts starring the famous mouse, his girlfriend Minnie, and surely many of his other most popular cohorts, all to reintroduce Mickey to fans young and old.  … Continue reading

Military Dogs Developing PTSD

As all human American troops leave Iraq, one special group continues to deploy: K-9 units. These dogs have a special role in the country, as their noses have proven more effective at finding bombs than any technology employed. The New York Times profiles these military canines. Iraq doesn’t use sniffer dogs nearly as much as the United States, and so far they’re only used for bomb-sniffing, not to locate mines or cadavers or other common jobs for military/law enforcement dogs. Of the 310 American sniffer dogs now currently deployed in Iraq 8 are trained to find narcotics, but the rest … Continue reading

Caring for Pets in Cold Weather

In June I posted about the dangers of heatstroke for animals. Now that we’ve entered the opposite extreme of seasonal weather, I’d like to take a look at ways to keep our pets safe when it’s cold outside. The ASPCA has a list of several things to remember when looking after pets in the winter. Just as leaving a dog in the car is dangerous in the heat the same is true in the cold. Especially when it isn’t sunny outside, cars trap the cold and can drop to dangerous freezing temperatures. If you must leave your pet in the … Continue reading

Before Getting On Your High Horse

At the moment a well known Australian Christian is voluble in what they are saying. Now I don’t want to go into who this person is and disparage them, but I do want us to think about the issues we become involved in. This person has been so voluble about so many issues and some of them pretty trivial over the years, that he has lost all credibility. To most people it’s a case of, ‘he’s raving on again.’ If all we are doing is turning people off, so they don’t listen at all, how is this helpful to God’s … Continue reading

Do You Want to be Smarter?

Do you want to be smarter? In all our relationships, in marriage, in parenting, in friendship, in our Christian life and our work life, we all need wisdom. So where and how do we get it? In this blog you’ll find the answer. Wisdom is essential if we are to successfully negotiate our way through this life and the problems it throws at us from time to time. Some people take the way out of trying to peek into the future by reading their horoscope or having a reading of tea leaves or going to a fortune teller. All of … Continue reading

The Empty Nest Syndrome (5)

Today we look at the story of Emma who, despite having four children and devoting part of her working life to caring for them full time, has successfully managed to avoid the distressing feelings that characterize the empty nest syndrome. Emma’s motivation for doing all she could to avoid the problems associated when her children left home were strong: Her mother had suffered terribly when Emma, the youngest of her birth family, had left home. She had felt enormous guilt and also enormous anger at her mother at the time and she did not want to suffer it herself when … Continue reading

Commish to Britney: Keep Away From Your Kids!

So much for Britney Spears’ claim in OK! magazine that she would “die” for her kids. The trainwreck didn’t even bother to show up for a court appearance that could have helped her regain custody of her two young sons. Monday afternoon a court commissioner ruled that the derailed singer still may not see her children Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1. According to court documents, the boys father Kevin Federline maintains sole legal and physical custody of the kids “indefinitely.” “The word victory is not something Mr. Federline or his counsel would ascribe to this situation,” Federline’s lawyer, … Continue reading

Warning To Parents: Marijuana Flavored Candy

I ran across an old article from 2005 about a new marijuana flavored candy. When I read the article I wondered what kind of responsible adult would not only come up with this stupid idea, but actually bring the product to market. Yes, a candy that has the taste of an illegal and addictive drug. I hoped that the product had quickly been removed from the market but an Internet search proved otherwise. As late as this past February, attempts were being made to remove the drug from stores. At that time a bill in Georgia had won approval from … Continue reading