Family

December 5, 2020

The Reflector Theory

When I was born (May 1957), my mom asked her 17-year-old brother, Dick LaHood, if he would be my godfather. My earliest memory of my Uncle Dick is from the early 1960s when he would pick up me and several of my brothers and sisters in his Cadillac and take us swimming at the Timber Lake Club.

November 28, 2020

The Season of Gratitude

During the Thanksgiving season, we usually hear and read about all the blessings we should be thankful for, such as our faith, health, family, country, and freedoms. The one common denominator in  these blessings is that they were all given to us as gifts.

November 21, 2020

Treatment Ideas for COVID-19

Earlier this month, an elderly client of mine who is in his 80s — I’ll call him John — wasn’t feeling well, so he went to the emergency department of one of the local hospitals. Prior to going to the hospital, John had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. In addition to the virus, he had other medical issues (comorbidities) that put him in the high-risk category for COVID patients.

October 24, 2020

Help From Heaven on a Home Project

I recently worked on a project at home that required a certain tool that I did not have. I searched through three of my old toolboxes and could not find the tool. I hate it when I don’t have the right tools to do a job.

October 17, 2020

The Magic of Stress Inoculation

Last week I wrote about my five-year-old grandson, Liam, who was scheduled to have open-heart surgery on Tuesday, October 13. At the end of my article, I asked for prayers for Liam. I’m happy to report that the surgery was successful. The surgeon was able to apply a patch that was a little larger than a dime to the hole in Liam’s heart, and after the surgery, Liam’s heart rhythm was normal, and he was placed in the intensive care unit.

October 10, 2020

Training for Crisis Management

My five-year-old grandson, Liam, is scheduled to have open-heart surgery on Tuesday, October 13. Liam is my son Harry’s second child. Harry and his wife Kathryn have four children — three boys and one girl.

October 3, 2020

How to Handle a Defiant Child

In last week’s article, The Defiant Catholic Child, I wrote that in every large devout Catholic family there is at least one child who is difficult to handle and demands more attention than the other children. In my article, I called this type of child “the defiant Catholic child” and limited my discussion to children who grow up in normal, devout Catholic two-parent homes.

September 26, 2020

The Defiant Catholic Child

I’ve written before about how I grew up in a family of 17 children — nine boys and eight girls — and how my wife and I raised seven children of our own. In every large family, there is at least one defiant child who is difficult to handle and demands more attention than the other children.

September 12, 2020

A New Insight on Suffering

Last month, while my 10-year-old granddaughter, Grace Hercik, was playing outside, she fell and broke her arm. Two days before she broke her arm, when my family was together for a birthday party, I told Grace and my other grandchildren about how I broke my leg in 1967. I was the same age as Grace when I broke my leg.

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