extended family

All about how to stay connected, strengthen ties and talk politics with your big, happy extended family.

Memories of mom
Posted this on Facebook a couple of days ago and have had the urge to share it here. To mark my mom and her tireless efforts to bring joy to the world. She wasn’t a perfect mom but who of us can say we were perfect or are perfect. Yet I can say that we should look at people more closely and see the them for the them that is them. So hold your love ones closer, tell them you love them, spend time with them and just enjoy life. Live life, be in the present.
By WrittenWritRalf7 days ago in Families
Give Me Back My Kidney or Pay Me $1.5 Million
I. The First Silence Outside the Operating Room In 2001, Dr. Richard Batista, a Long Island surgeon, cut his own body open to give his wife a kidney. The surgery went flawlessly. Post‑op tests came back normal. Four years later, his wife filed for divorce.
By Jin29 days ago in Families
Is This Hell?
It’s too hot for this. I’m lying in bed attempting to write while my son bangs his little, big head on my lower back and hip. As he’s ramming into me like a wild bull all I can do is sit with the flames and prevent myself from erupting. I’ve been a volcano lately. It’s been too hot for this. My stepdaughter has been bullying me, saying my breath stinks, when she has 12 cavities and four of them silver plates in her teeth. It’s too dang hot for this. My three-year old, Aje, keeps eating out the trash and it’s driving me freaking insane. My man is so perfect that I expect him to be perfect all of the time. When he doesn’t meet or exceed my expectations, I’m extremely hard on him. And this is driving both of us crazy. When you finally realize you’re a little toxic too. Is it getting hot in here?! When your one-year-old continues to eat off of the floor and it gives you mini heart aches. I think I’m going to pass out. When your three-year-old won’t stop writing on the darn WALLS! When your seven-year-old, stepdaughter, is trying to teach you how to raise YOUR kids that YOU pushed out for HOURS! OH, MY LORD IS THE WALLS CAVING IN?! When your man has such a soft spot for his daughter that he doesn’t realize she’s manipulating him most of the time to get her way. Yeah, I said it… When you don’t express everything, you feel inside your home because you don’t want to hurt someone's feelings, you let it build up inside until it explodes and then you end up hurting someone anyway. Yeah, I can’t breathe. When your son is still learning how to pee in the toilet, you have to clean and blow dry a mattress every day. When your son KEEPS eating out the trash after you’ve consistently punished him for it. When your one-year-old son types on the keyboard with you and he says, “I’m going to be JUUUST like you when I grow up, mommy.” (Okay that was kind of cute)
By Nalaabout a month ago in Families
My Parents Have One Son to Be Proud Of, and It's Not Me
At this point, I have written many times about how I have screwed up my life over and over, and how I am still now at a point of desperation and trying to climb up hill battles to fix myself and my life. Well, I have an older brother who, of course, has made his fair share of mistakes as well. However, unlike me, he generally does everything he is meant to do and then goes beyond that a little further.
By Timothy A Rowlandabout a month ago in Families
The First Saturday in August
I came home from the cemetery this afternoon with my heart still on the mountain. Every first Saturday in August, families from my little community of Spillcorn, located in Marshall, North Carolina, gather to decorate the graves of those who came before us. It has been part of our lives for as long as anyone can remember. My grandparents made that walk. My mother made it for most of her life. Today, I carried flowers to her grave.
By Tim Carmichaelabout a month ago in Families
7 Signs Your Soulmate Is Thinking About You Right Now
There's a particular kind of moment I used to dismiss without a second thought — the sudden warmth in my chest for no visible reason, the way a memory of someone would surface out of nowhere while I was doing something as mundane as washing dishes, the strange itch to check my phone seconds before it actually buzzed. I used to call these things nothing. Coincidence. A wandering mind. The ordinary static of being a person with feelings.
By Wilson Igbasi2 months ago in Families
Quality Time
How are you doing today? I know the heat is bringing out all kinds of emotions, but the sun also brings people outdoors. Yes, we seek shade and water, but when we stop for iced coffees and ice creams, we see people do the same.
By Elizabeth Woods2 months ago in Families
Seven Minutes to Tie a Shoe, Six Days to Die: The Gene Therapy Trial That Took Everything
On the seventh morning, the numbers on the pulse oximeter were dropping. Six years old. Base editing. Adeno-associated viral vector. Her immune system did not recognize the shell of that vector, took it for an enemy, and attacked itself along with it. On the seventh day, she died of an immune response.
By Jin2 months ago in Families
The Buck Never Stopped Over Here!
by Tomás G Robinson I was raised in a little country town (at the time) called El Paso de Robles, in Central California. Before it became one of the most popular wines producing, vineyard having tourist traps that it is known as now. I lived in a lower income housing suburb that offered nice 3- and 4-bedroom homes for sale and were priced so that families who were considered working class could qualify for a loan to take part in the American Dream.
By Thomas G Robinson2 months ago in Families
The Crown Between Them
The palace had never felt so quiet. For decades, it had been a place of ceremony, tradition, and carefully measured words. Every step mattered. Every glance carried meaning. But behind the polished doors and historic walls, it was still a home—one that had slowly grown divided.
By Behind the Curtain2 months ago in Families
Starting Over- In My 40's
Your Twenties are normally when you become an adult, with bills, starting a family, and having your own place. I was married for the first time at age 19 and again at age 23. It wasn’t until I met my now husband, when I was 28 that life finally started to click, but due to medical issues, I couldn’t work.
By Crystal Nicole2 months ago in Families
Grief
"It's okay to have your sad days, just don't live in them." I had an Auntie Jo memory pop up today. The timing of this memory was too fitting and perfect. I wanted to share it.
By Chloe Unfiltered2 months ago in Families