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Category: Real Stories

So You Want to Homeschool? What You Should Know

So You Want to Homeschool? What You Should Know

by: Traci Turner The 2020-2021 school year is half over, but schools all over the country are in various states of operation. Whether it be in-person school, organized distance learning, planned pod classes, or homeschool, parents have had to make some hard decisions-– some of which are not working out. I have been homeschooling my son since kindergarten. It was not a religious decision or ego driven. I had met a few teachers in our district and was. . ….

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Scraps of Memories: Losing the Life That Was

Scraps of Memories: Losing the Life That Was

by: Carisa Peterson My mother made all of my clothes while I was growing up. But it didn’t embarrass me in the way that some homemade clothes are known to turn out. That is, badly enough that they make the kid wearing the clothes want to look down and dig their toes in the dirt once someone notices a lopsided cut, or one sleeve longer than the other and asks them if someone made whatever it is. She easily could…

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My Challenge List: How Embracing Challenges Made My Life Better

My Challenge List: How Embracing Challenges Made My Life Better

by: Molly Magid “Six slick slim sycamore saplings and five thrifty, fun, fifty-somethings. . .” I chant along with the rest of the group as I try to slow my breathing. We finish our warm-ups and line up behind the door. Somehow, I end up at the front of the line, place my shaky palm on the door knob, and prepare myself to open it and walk on stage. Three years ago, I found myself re-enacting that scene over and…

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Traveling Alone Landed Me at an Indian Wedding

Traveling Alone Landed Me at an Indian Wedding

by: Dena Moes If I dug a hole straight through the middle of the Earth from my home in Chico, California, I would eventually surface in India. I took the long way around, traveling for twenty-three hours by air, to see my sister and her brand new baby. My sister Amy was a foreign correspondent posted in New Delhi for years, and I had never made the trip, too busy and cash-poor raising my own young children in California. But…

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Scrunchies and Mixtapes: An Ode to the 1990s

Scrunchies and Mixtapes: An Ode to the 1990s

by: Trish Cantillon “Is that a scrunchie?”  I asked the Madewell salesgirl yesterday, pointing at a container filled with the 90s era hair bob with suspicion. The girl nodded enthusiastically, “Yes, aren’t they cute? They’re really popular!” Was that true? Were they cute and popular again? It immediately brought to mind my own jar filled with scrunchies, a pink neon fanny pack and my boom box.  I wondered, why are some things gone forever while others resurface? On a winter’s…

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