Working in Education through the Language Lens

So my husband got a really fun game for Christmas this past year. "Exploding Kittens". It's not as hostile or vulgar as it sounds - in fact it's quite fun, and leads to some interesting family alliances. Anyway - one of the cards you an play is the "nope" card. It negates any other card anyone plays. So this is not a game tutorial - the story continues....... We were sitting all together watching a movie/tv last Saturday night - and my eldest son James - said something under his breath and the boys laughed. Brian and I both asked what the joke was - to which he replied - no nothing... but I had heard the word 'mom' so we pressed on. The joke was on me - that he was referring to the fact that I say NO a lot - like a hand full of nope cards. SO:  1) I didn't take it personally because it's true - I do - at home. It's my mom personae - the rule regulator. I tend to catch mistakes instead of good and I'm working on t

I returned this past Saturday after spending one week in Taiwan and experienced two of the most emotionally difficult days of my adult life, as well as spending Christmas on a 14.5 hour flight and New Years in a hotel room with my son sleeping beside me. #1: Meeting my new son (Edward- aged 12), sitting in court and committing to be his legal guardian and then having to say goodbye for two or so more months before he joins our family. #2: Then visiting a women's prison a mere 15 minutes away from our hotel with my middle son to see his birth mother. Watching tears stream down first her face, and then his - and having to leave that tiny bleak room, knowing that he may never see her again. It wasn't until Sunday morning when we were taking down our Christmas tree, when my eldest adopted son (James-now aged 18) responded to my almost rhetorical question with a nugget of wisdom I needed to hear again. I nonchalantly asked: "how come it takes so much longer to put this