Generation Clean

I came across a beautiful Christmas movie called "Silent Night." It is the story of how the German priest, Joseph Mohr, and the church organist, Franz Gruber, came to compose the famous carol in 1818. Mohr was known for his compassion for all, including the poor, and the hymn was born because of his desire to share a hymn with his congregation in spite of the church organ having broken. The film has a wonderful message of hope and is a hidden gem; much like another Christmas film produced by Brigham Young University in about 1980 called "Mr Krueger's Christmas" which stars Jimmy Stewart (whom we love so much in his most famous Chrismas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" ). So, if you are looking for a great family Christmas movie I suggest this one!

Whether you were standing at the proverbial water-cooler with your fellow employees, or at a park play-date watching kids run and scream on the play equipment, you've done it. You have told the story of something awful or terribly hard that happened to you and then sighed, with relief and a smile, when someone else understood how you felt. It's natural for us to want to commiserate about things that are tough. Maybe that is why mommy blogs, and Facebook, and Pinterest all suck us in. We want to have shared experiences. We share on all sorts of subjects. The one I want to address now is parenting . I have noticed an awful lot of articles with lists of things that stink about parenting (for some reason we all love lists). Most talk about the everyday things that are frustrating, and sometimes they throw in that little abstract statement, "...but it's all worth it" at the end. But they don't really convey why it's worth it . Everyone understands tha...