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Special Needs, Special Families

By Linda Gilden “G’wace, G’wace. You OK. Calm down.” Elizabeth, age 2, ran to her 4-year-old sister. Touching Grace’s arm, Elizabeth said, “G’wace, bweathe. Bweathe.” Grace was in the midst of a meltdown. But at Elizabeth’s words, she began to calm down. “Here, G’wace, here’s your blankie.” You see, Grace has autism and even though […]

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Dos and Don’ts When a Child is Bullied

By Linda Gilden Autumn was going down the steps one morning before school, looking for her friend. She heard footsteps. Hoping to see her friend, Autumn turned to come face-to-face with the class bully. Without giving Autumn time to move, Heather ran straight into Autumn. Autumn’s feet went up into the air and her head […]

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Christmas Traditions to Make Your Holiday Special

By Linda Gilden “What? No vegetable soup?” screeched my daughter as she lifted the lid on the Dutch oven. Everyone in the room turned around to stare.  “We aren’t having vegetable soup?” “We’ve had vegetable soup every Christmas Eve since I can remember. What happened?” “Then what is in the vegetable soup pot?” Sheepishly I […]

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Hippie for the Holy One

By Linda Gilden Torry Martin has been a lifelong learner, but school wasn’t his favorite place. He used his creativity to avoid work.  Torry’s third grade class had a weekly spelling test. On one of those days Torry didn’t want to take the test. “I can’t take the spelling test,” he informed his teacher. “Oh […]