Just Me

  It’s the last day of the month; time to share what books I finished reading this month!   This month, I had a good mix of books to read. Some I left reviews for on Amazon and others I shared about on Facebook. (I wonder if my friends on Facebook ever tire of me talking about the books I am reading??) I also mentioned them on Twitter sometimes.   This month was very busy but I did manage to finish reading some books. I’m actually happy with the number of books I finished reading! I think I did good this month.   A funny thing about the books I was reading this month: With each book I finished reading, I finished reading the next one the next day! That’s right; first I finished reading the Cleopatra book, then the next day I finished reading the sci-fi novel, then the next day the next Guardians of Ga’Hoole book, and so on. It’s so funny, but also kind of cool, how it worked out that way!   With the print books I am reading next month, there is...

  Several years ago, one of my kids, who was a teenager, asked me if I could help out a friend. At this time, this friend identified as female. This person was also sexually active (the two of them were the same age) and recently, this person had sex with their boyfriend. Unfortunately, the condom their partner wore leaked, and this person was terrified of becoming pregnant. This person DID NOT want to be a teen mom! They planned to finish high school and go to college. They had dreams to chase after.   So my oldest asked me if I would help them to get emergency contraception (EC). At the time, I was not well-versed with the law about this sort of thing, but I did know that ECs were available for free at clinics. However, I was wary of opting to help out, because I didn’t know if it was legal to do so. I didn’t know if it was legal to help a minor obtain emergency birth control. I also did not want to interfere in what should have been something that their mom would need t...

  Photo Credit: Shutterstock Today is the last day my youngest attended middle school. (It’s also the last day of my oldest’s summer vacation! He starts summer term at the university on Monday.) My youngest had their promotion ceremony yesterday (8 th grade graduation). When I shared pictures and a video from it on Facebook, I got to talking with some people about everything that my youngest has been through during middle school.   To say the least, middle school was NOT easy for them. They experienced bullying, harassment for being gay, a physical altercation with someone trying to steal something from them, problems with teachers, their mental health issues affecting their learning experience, and a serious sense of feeling lost and alone. (This was made worse when they started losing friends due to their social awkwardness and poor social skills.) I honestly contemplated transferring them to another school because it got so bad. But they insisted that they wanted to ...