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Category: My Ever-Changing Family

They Did It — They Got Married (And the Bride Was Beautiful)

The bride was beautiful. A crystal headpiece set off Christina Newhall's short dark hair on her wedding day in May. Photo by Barbara Newhall

The bride was beautiful. The setting was exquisite. The band kept everyone jumping. Everything a mother of the bride could hope for. Read more.

Mother-of-the-Bride Dress: What, Oh, What Do I Wear to My Daughter’s Wedding?

smoke blue mother-of-the-bride dress. Photo by Barbara Newhall
Figure flaws? I’m going to wear them proudly — with the help of just the right mother-of-the-bride dress. Here are my final four choices. Read more.

Six Ways to Look Dreadful at Your Daughter’s Wedding — A Mother-of-the-Bride Moment

A mother of the bride tries on dresses to cover her figure flaws -- flabby arms, wobbly neck and falling bustline. Photo by Barbara Newhall

The mother of the bride faces up to the figure flaws she’ll be taking to her daughter’s wedding: wobbly neck, flabby arms, descending bustline . . . and more. Read more.

Gray Hairs. Wrinkles. And Kids Who Won’t Stop Growing Up

Christina, Jon and Peter. Their mother had gray hairs, bu the kids were still small enough to cuddle. Photo by Barbara Newhall

Peter’s in fourth grade now. My third grade boy is gone. Christina has grown an inch since Easter. My size 6 girl is gone.  Read more.

No to Bride Barbie — Yes to a Real-Life Wedding

Christina Newhall, age 7, playing tug of war at a party. Photo by Barbara Newhall

My 7-year-old wanted nothing to do with her Bride Barbie doll. But twenty-five years later, she’s ready to be a bride for real. Read more.

A Lost Child in Wartime Detroit — A Headscarf Story

a lost child in wartime Detroit . Kern's Department Store, Detori., 1942. Photo courtesy of US Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information - Library of Congress-Prints & Photographs online catalog Public Domain 1942-07-00

I couldn’t see the point of my mother’s skimpy yellow babushka — until the day I found myself a lost child in a cavernous Detroit department store. Read more.

Regulations: Will Trump’s Slash and Trash Deregulation Put Americans at Risk?

Our future after regulation 'reform'? More scenes like the Oakland Ghost Ship fire that killed 36 mostly young people, artists, musicians, LGBTQ folks. A few days after the fire, it was cordoned off as a "crime scene." Photo by Barbara Newhall

Do we really want to dispense with government regulations that prevent disasters — like the Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36? Read more.

Autumn in the Garden, When Sensible Plants Pack It In for the Winter . . . And a Healing Ankle

Autumn in the garden where, like it or not, the seasons impose their wills on every living thing. Photo by Barbara Newhall

It was autumn in the garden and all the grim stuff that happens as winter sets in — death, rot, shrivel and retreat — made for a thing of beauty. Read more.

Wisdom From My Father — Or, How to Sweep the Kitchen Floor

The red David Falconer barn of my father near Scottville, Michigan. Photo by Barbara Newhall

“Think about what you are doing,” my father told me. “Use your head.” His advice still applies in a 21st-century world neither of us could have imagined.  Read more.

Something Old — Ten Ideas, Old and New, From a Mother of the Bride

Christina Newhall checks out her wedding venue -- something old. Photo by Barbara Newhall

As a mother of the bride whose past reaches deep into the 20th century, I’ve got lots of ideas for my daughter’s wedding day “something old.” Read more.

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