ON THURSDAY'S I POST FROM THE VAULT. THIS POST IS FROM AUGUST 2011. Every day is costume day at the Howerton house.  On this particular morning they were pretending to be a fire-fighting family, with protective eyewear. Free kids meals at IKEA = still not worth going there with children.  Karis is not tall enough to go into the kids room, and now suddenly Jafta is too tall.  And they are only four years apart.  Annoying. Karis is our little homewrecker.  During her nap she likes to . . .

ON THURSDAY'S I POST FROM THE VAULT. THIS POST IS FROM AUGUST 2011. If you are an adoptive parent, or thinking of adopting, or interested in orphan care, or just curious about social justice issues for children, consider coming to the Together For Adoption conference in Phoenix this October 21-22.   I will be leading four sessions on helping children transition from group care into family life, and there is a really great line-up of speakers and breakout sessions. I will confess, I was a . . .

ON THURSDAY'S I POST FROM THE VAULT. THIS POST IS FROM AUGUST 2011. First of all, might I say a big THANK YOU for all of the advice and feedback you gave me over our childcare issues, and the skateboarding thing.  It was tremendously helpful and really did give me a lot of clarity. The boys have finished out their week in skate camp, but I’ve decided that we are going to hold off on skating as a hobby for now.  I know, I know.  Many of you opined about how kids should be able to choose . . .

ON THURSDAY'S I POST FROM THE VAULT. THIS POST IS FROM AUGUST 2011.   Warning: whining about first-world problems to follow.Finding consistent childcare has become increasingly more difficult with four children.  It’s not that they are hard kids.  They are really pretty typical  It’s just that collectively . . . four kids are really hard.  Care in point: our nanny just quit.  Again. I should caveat right now and say that we have some occasional babysitters that we absolutely adore.  . . .

ON THURSDAY'S I POST FROM THE VAULT. THIS POST IS FROM AUGUST 2011. I’ve got some new posts up around the internets.  Here’s a little pimping: On MamaPop, I talk about Hilary Duff’s recently pregnancy announcement, and the fact that I felt all sad for her being a teenager until I read that she IS IN HER TWENTIES AND MARRIED.  And then, as a public service, I give a little primer on other pop starts that I still think of as teens who are now all grown up.  And then I go back to watching CNN. . . .

ON THURSDAY'S I POST FROM THE VAULT. THIS POST IS FROM AUGUST 2011. This past week was BlogHer, so before I left I had a little mani-pedi session with India, in a joint effort to both make my feet presentable and assuage my guilt for leaving for the weekend. . . .

ON THURSDAY'S I POST FROM THE VAULT. THIS POST IS FROM JULY 2011. When people talk about responding to orphan care, there are usually two avenues that come to mind.  The first is adoption – and often, this implies a couple from a wealthier country adopting a child out of an orphanage in the third world.  The second is the idea of building an orphanage to care for children.  I think that these can be good solutions for children . . . certainly international adoption and orphanages have been a . . .

ON THURSDAY'S I POST FROM THE VAULT. THIS POST IS FROM JULY 2011. One of my friends recently entered the world of online dating, and she was lamenting to me about the body standards that some of the men post in their profiles.  “They say they want a woman who is fit,” she says.  “But I know what fit is code for.  It’s code for skinny.”   My friend is tall and active. She runs almost every day. She’s very fit.  And yet, she suspects that her plus-sized body proportions would be off-putting . . .