At our house, everyone contributes. It’s not a big house, so even with just three of us we’re able to get a lot done if everyone does their part.

Imagine what could be possible if we approached our community the same way.

Like so many other things, “making a difference” in a community sounds kind of overwhelming if you think too big. Most of us won’t have impacts that make the headlines. But just like in our little house, we can get so much done if everyone does their part.  

This morning I saw a post on Facebook about the four habits of happy couples:

1. They don’t leave without saying goodbye to each other,

2. They talk face to face every day,

3. They say “I love you,”

4. They surprise each other (in a good way) now and then.

Is a great relationship really that simple? Definitely not. But all four habits send the same important message – “I value you and our relationship.” That part is simple, and it’s a message that shouldn’t be reserved for romantic relationships. 

Child-directed play is a challenge for a lot of parents. In theory, it’s easy, because you just sit there and let your child take the lead. Most of us, though, approach play with an agenda, whether we realize it or not, and turn it into something that feels a bit like work. The movie soundtrack from "Frozen" might drive us crazy, but there is an upside: “Let It Go” is a great mantra for parents when it comes to things like child-directed play.

No matter how many little siblings you grew up with, how many kids you babysat over the years, how many child development books you’ve read, you will never truly be prepared for parenthood when it happens.

My husband and I thought about putting our Christmas tree in a different spot in our living room this year. But then the panic happened and we changed our minds.

Our middle school daughter was definitely not OK with this potential change to the holiday plan. The tree has been in the same place since we moved into this house 10 years ago, and putting it somewhere else was not an option, according to her. It just wouldn’t be Christmas.

As adults, we all have different levels of tolerance for messiness, but in general, we like it a lot less than kids. We dislike it so much that we sometimes go to great lengths to prevent children from making messes, especially big ones or ones that take a long time to undo. Think for a moment, though, what might be behind those kid disasters.

When I had a baby, I suddenly realized that my old friends weren’t going to cut it anymore. No disrespect, old friends, but it was a matter of schedules.

None of my friends had young children, which meant there was no way for them to justify being a stay-at-home “mom,” like I had decided to be. Of the friends who were already parents, their kids were all much older – again, no getting out of work for them. And of course, taking time off from employment may be neither appealing nor an option for lots of parents.

If you live in Mesa County, chances are your kids are back at school. And “back-to-school” for many of us means “back-to-trying-to-come-up-with-healthy-lunches-that-my-kids-willl-actually-eat.”

Lunches that get eaten and lunches that are healthy, however, are not mutually exclusive. Like so many other things, it often comes down to communication, and maybe giving up a little control.

Of all the things to love about summer, perhaps my favorite is that it’s family camping season. Sticky s’mores fingers, smoky campfire hair, endless games of Uno, rainstorms that force us to read our books and nap all afternoon ... I pretty much love it all.

I recently had the enjoyable experience of attending a picnic at The Botanical Gardens of Western Colorado, where JUCO teams and STRiVE clients and staff ate, played and bonded on a perfect spring evening.

I’ve always thought babies are a lot smarter than most of us give them credit for. Consider for a moment that 90 percent of a child’s brain is formed in the first three years of life, and more than 700 new neural connections are formed every second.

Pretty amazing.

The problem is that adults often don’t recognize all this baby genius because we tend to convey information with words, either spoken or written. Babies and toddlers, though, have a lot more going on in their heads than their limited or non-existent verbal language allows them to express. 

I love living in Grand Junction. We have easy access to world-class outdoor recreation, better health care resources than most comparably sized communities, and the weather is tough to beat. But I love to get out of town, too, and offering our child a broader view of the world is something we do whenever possible.

When I think about what made my life easier as a young mother, one of the first things that comes to mind is books. When my daughter was fussy or wired, she would settle down with a book. When we were feeling out of ideas about how to spend our time, we’d go to the library or the bookstore. When she had a question about a new idea or topic, we’d find a book about it.

March is Read Aloud Month, which gives me a great platform to share a belief that I hold dear: You’re never too young, or too old, to have someone read to you.

And the world did not come crashing down. 

No matter what my position is, the job title that means the most to me is “mom,” and every day I try to make choices about my time that reflect that.