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I am curious about people's opinions on what kinds of boundaries are generally accepted in social media "friending." I have mainly friended family members and friends, mostly extended family and old friends, because it feels odd to communicate via Facebook with people I see regularly in person...

The church I have attended for years got a new pastor a few years ago, and he preaches a hard-line predestination theology. That’s the only thing I have ever heard him preach. He literally talks about nothing else except God’s grace and how touched we should be by it. I grew up in a baptist...

I have kind of an obscure situation in which I'm questioning where to draw the line between extending friendliness and respecting privacy. My children's school had a custodian for many years who was recently fired. He was a very, very old man, retired from his previous line of work, and I...

Summer vacation has begun and today did not go well. We had a good routine for the school year, and I realize we all need some structure for the summer. But I'm not sure where to start. My toddler doesn't comprehend nap time, because he can hear the other kids playing and so he just leaves...

I had the task of sorting through a lifetime of possessions when my parents passed. They started a lot of hobbies that they never really got into. It's a common theme, I'm sure. I've embarked on a few myself. The difference is that my parents didn't ease into hobbies. They purchased...

My kids go to public school and have a few close friends there, but they don't really have friends they see outside of school. As summer approaches, I want them to be able to have play dates and hang out with other kids. Otherwise they get lonely. Here is the problem I have been running into...

A few years ago, at my father's funeral, the officiate gave each of his children and children-in-law a special trinket. It did not have much monetary value, but it was personalized and very special to us. I had set mine on my seat while I greeted people, and between hugs I noticed it was gone...

I recently lost both my parents, within a few years of each other. We have had these past couple months of coping and getting the kids through the reality of not having grandparents any more. But I still have the challenges of the estate. Neither of my siblings live nearby, so I have the sole...

Our church decided to put on a special week-long children's program. Due to ongoing renovation work, we are holding it at a larger church, and working together with them to host the event. I registered to help weeks ago, and was assured that the leader of the group to which I was assigned...

I am not sure whether I should do anything in this situation. I'm not a very outgoing person, but I do make the effort when I have to, or when it benefits my kids, even if it's outside my comfort zone. My husband has a buddy. He goes to our church, but rarely attends. I have met his wife...

This seems to happen every morning. I make breakfast for the kids - all four of them - and then get three of them off to school and come back home to microwave my coffee and eat breakfast. I don't know why I bother making coffee before they all go to school. I have this image in my head that...

I am throwing a birthday party for my kindergartner at our house this year. Usually we have outdoor parties, but she was a winter baby and it's still very snowy here. So it's inside our house. I prefer to invite the whole class for my kids' first party, because they haven't really formed...

When I was in high school, there was a teacher who was very grumpy. She was not upset about a particular thing; that's just the way she always was. She was mean. She was even mean to people she liked. She was terrible to people she didn't like, and she eventually got fired for crossing the...

My husband had this discussion recently about how long a couple must be married before we can *assume* that the marriage is successful. A person who has been married for a year might consider it a successful marriage at the time, but we all know that plenty of those marriages dissolve before...

My two year old son has a little toothbrush that he uses, and some baby tooth gel that is fluoride-free and safe to swallow, which I put on the toothbrush to make it taste good. I don't actually like it when he applies the tooth gel himself. I prefer to do it. But he is a little copy cat and...

I am getting very stressed with our current situation. I'll be brief and just say that we have been accumulated a lot of medical bills for two of our children. It is definitely to the point of exceeding our regular income, and has been for almost a year now. At first I did not think too much...

Do married couples actually pray together? My husband and I both pray, but on our own. We talk about spiritual issues together all the time. But it recently dawned on me that several devout older couples at our church, whom we really respect and whose marriages are good examples, talk about...

I found these great personalized calendars that you can customize. Instead of just having the holidays on them, you can have birthdays, anniversaries, and other events printed on them. And of course the featured pictures are your own also. I wanted to make one for my mother-in-law, but I ran...

Earlier this year, my mother (who is a middle aged widow) moved very close to me. I advised against it, and encouraged her instead to remain where she is already established and consider getting a part time job or pursuing her hobbies. But obviously I couldn't stop her. So that happened. Now...

A lot of people we know are out of jobs. Just a few years ago, there were a lot of good jobs, but unexpected things happened and most of those have dried up. There were a lot of layoffs. Most of our friends own homes, and can't sell those homes because no one is really moving here (no jobs)...