After I finished driver's training, I thought I was road-ready, but passing the behind-the-wheel driver's test turned out to be something like climbing Mt. Everest. It took me four tries to pass it. The first was not entirely due to poor driving.

Too often, when they become adolescents, our children feel they must decide on what they want to be when they grow up. Adolescence is just too young for somebody to decide what they will do for a lifetime. Setting long-term goals at such a young age can hinder a young person's growth more than help it.

I walked away from driving about two years ago. I’ve never really enjoyed driving. I have always been a nervous driver, afraid that I will zig when a zag is called for. Several near misses during my driving days amplified that fear. I think the problem may have started on a Sunday drive.

Baggage keeps us in the past and blocks the road to the future. You can’t live in the past. Shut the door behind you. Travel light. Take with you only those things you have learned from the mistakes you have made.

The other day, I watched one neighboring squirrel raid the nest of the homesteader in our front yard tree. A few days later, the homesteader buried another cache of nuts on our boulevard. As soon as he left, the neighbor came over, searched, pillaged and re-buried our homesteader's bounty. No wonder the homesteader can't find his stockpile!

Babies cry for all sorts of reasons. Hunger. Thirst. Discomfort. Sometimes just to exercise their lungs. When we brought my first-born home, he cried almost constantly.

My young son asked, “Momma, who do you love more? Me or Nicki?” I had to think. I knew the stock answer was, “I love you both the same,” but I didn’t. I loved some qualities about him that she didn’t have and she had some lovable qualities that I didn’t see in him.

Creeks and wooded walkways had all been explored.Forts were built and dismantled; some were rebuilt and some were abandoned. The days were hot, too hot for outdoor play, and so after supper we all went out into the dusk to reconnect our friendships with backyard (and front-yard) games.

For just a moment, I wished the nostalgic wish that crosses every mother's mind from time to time. I wished that I could go back in time and hear the youthful voices of my children and their friends one more time.