Homemade Toy TownWritten by Deborah Shelton
Publishing Guidelines: Feel free to publish following article in its entirety in your ezine, website, or print newsletter. The resource box must be included with an active link. Please send a courtesy copy of publication in which article appears to: deborah@fiveminuteparent.com Word wrap to 60, (201 words)Homemade Toy Town By Deborah Shelton With a few items found around house, and a little imagination, you can make your very own toy town. Once your town is built, fill it with your favorite dolls and toy cars. 1. Yarn: Use yarn to outline streets for toy cars. Roads can be as straight or as winding as you'd like. 2. Pinecones: "Plant" these trees along edges of a street or in a park area. 3. Cardboard Tubes: Form toll bridges and tunnels with these easy-to-find tubes.
| | My Mother, the PersonWritten by Heidi B. Lapin
I left home at 17 and got my own apartment. I was very rebellious and independent. The first few months away from home, I was excited, but deep down I felt insecurity of not having my mom, my safety net, to take care of me if and when I may be in need. As I grew up, I realized how she must have felt when I left home. (It was just two of us for a long time because my dad left when I was 10 and my brother was off at college.) My mom had so much stress on her; especially around time I was between 14 and 17 years old. We had no money, her mom died, she had a rough job, and all this was happening when she was going through her own reassessment of life; as was I. As an adult, I understand her anger and resentment regarding my leaving home. I left her...alone. I realize now that when I was feeling insecure being newly on my own, my mother must have been feeling same way. She wasn't just feeling effects as MY mom. She was feeling effects of being a woman on HER own for her first time, too. She was feeling effects of being a divorced woman, overdue bills, loss of her mom, an independent son far away at college, and daughter whom she pushed away due to misdirected anger while her daughter did same to her.
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