My kiddos are grown, and family night hasn’t brought all four of them around the same table in over five years. Oh, we’ve had gatherings with several here and dinners out with several there, but no family night full of laughter and fun quite like we had when they were young. They’ve spread out too far, but we hope to gather the entire flock later this year for a lake vacation, and you can bet, it will be loud. [Read more…]

I first met Madonna—not the singer—when my eldest went to toddler nursery with her eldest, and they both announced their little baby brothers to come around the same time. Madonna grew weary of the jokes about her name and eventually told us all just to call her Vern, so Vern it was, and we were kindred spirits from the start. There is no pretense whatsoever with my friend and her large clan.  They are as real as they could possibly be, and that’s saying a lot, considering her beginnings. You see Vern’s mother left for work one evening and never made it there. She was never seen again, and Vern and Leonard, her brother, were unfortunately not left to wonder what happened to her because they were there in the car when it happened and then were forced to be reared by the man whom they always believed did it: their father. [Read more…]