I now know why they talk about the problems some parents have to get their adult kids to leave the “nest.” Getting baby birds out of their nest is a lot of work!

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We survived having a nest of robins’ above our front door that spring, but we didn’t expect them to return in July!

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The next morning, I came downstairs and was shocked to see the baby robin huddled on the narrow window above our front door.

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Early one morning about three weeks after I first saw the nest, I looked out and saw a baby robin.

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I opened the front door to get our newspaper and was startled when a bird flew past my head, chirping angrily.

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No, I’m not a hair stylist.  Just someone who suffered for years because I had no idea what to do with my unruly hair. So I’m offering some thoughts for anyone out there with curly or wavy hair who feels the way I did. I so wish I’d known these things when I was 5 instead

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If you missed part one of this blog “My Hair Has a Mind of Its Own,” go here. Some days, I look back and wonder how I could have been so obtuse. I mean, as you can see by my picture when I was three, my hair was trying really hard to be curly. And yet,

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Today, I love my hair, but when I was growing up, it was so frustating to have to put up with hair that, according to my mother, “had a mind of its own.”

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If you haven’t read part 1 of this post, click here.  6. In the years from 1945 to 1973, closed adoption was virtually a given for most unwed young women. Prior to 1945, illegitimate children were usually given to a family member or someone the family knew—either to be raised as their own, or until

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While researching the effects of adoption during the late 1940s, 50s, and 60, I kept reading that many of the young women who had given up their babies were never able to fully grieve their losses. Some, in fact, had managed to keep their pregnancy a secret from everyone in their lives, including their spouse and

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For some time, I’ve been wanting to write about my journey with food. I know, that sounds strange. But think about it. If there’s one thing we have in common, it’s eating. And for each of us, that eating can be a lot of trial and journey. It seems that every day we’re told something

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When people asked me what I wore to write, I used to have an easy answer: whatever I have on. Jeans, cut-offs, a T-shirt, possibly pyjamas and a housecoat. Whatever. I mean, who’s going to see me, right? I’m sitting alone at a computer desk in my house. A New York publisher is unlikely to

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In 2005, I had a bone density test. and learned that I was bordering on osteoporosis. I had another one last year; it was worse; I now had osteoporosis. Very frustrating. I'm way too young for this! So, I made a concerted effort to do what I could to keep my bones from getting any

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I’ve never gotten into the habit of drinking Coke or other carbonated beverages (aka pop, soft drinks, etc.) the way some people do—as if they were water. I might have one a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. But I’ve always known there was nothing good about it. With a chocolate bar, you can at least

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Years ago, a wonderful new commodity was born. White bread. And the housewives thought it was so light and such a wonderful appealing colour that they flocked to the stores to buy it. And then Kraft developed a pasta dinner that only took minutes to prepare. And so on and so forth. It wasn't until

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After watching "I Can Make You Thin" with Paul McKenna, I found myself thinking about words and their meanings, and I suddenly realized that we don't actually have a word for "just right." "Fat" is never a positive word when used in North America to describe a human being. The word for "too fat" is

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