Your Millennium Garden Plant three rows of peas: Peace of mind Peace of heart Peace of soul. Plant four rows of squash: Squash gossip Squash indifference Squash grumbling Squash selfishness. Plant four rows of lettuce: Lettuce be faithful Lettuce be kind Lettuce be happy Lettuce really love one another. No garden should be without turnips: Turnip for service when needed Turnip to help one another Turnip the music and dance. Water freely with patience and Cultivate with love. There is much fruit in your garden Because you reap what you sow. To conclude our garden we must have thyme: Thyme for fun Thyme for rest Thyme for ourselves. Pretty nice garden, don't you think? More >>

Following Up On My Call Hi Dr. Laura,I called in to your show a few months ago. My problem was that I was being very negative towards my husband and wanted your help. You advised me to give him a hug as soon as he walks in the door and find one thing that was positive and good that happened to me that day. It was very hard for the first few days. I realized that I was concentrating so much on the frustration of being a pediatrician who was a stay at home mom for 2 boys that I was losing track of the precious momentsthat I was having everyday. The first few weeks all I could muster up was only one good thing or moment with my boys. Then I found myself taking note of all the wonderful things big and small that happened to me during the day. My husband's initial reaction was stunned silence and a tight squeeze. It took him awhile to get used to the new found peace in the house. Everything about our marriage has become wonderful and peaceful. Thank you Dr. Laura. And thank you for changing my world and opening my mind to new horizons. with lots of gratitude, S. P.S. My 6 year old is starting to share more things about his school than he has ever done. More >>

Mom's Advice I married a wonderful MAN, but as a young bride (and "feminist") I expected to "mend" my husband's little annoying habits by just asking him to change. The asking turned into complaining, the complaining into nagging, the nagging into days of pouting and withholding sex. It was all HIS fault. I was a modern, career women! I shouldn't have to pick up after him or understand HIS needs. Why couldn't HE just do things the way I WANTED? One day I was complaining to mom and asked her why she did these things for my dad. She gave me a very simple reply: "I LEARNED THAT I MINDED LESS PICKING UP AFTER HIM THAN I MINDED BEING MAD." She was so right! That simple idea turned my destructive attitude around. Now when I turn off the lights that HE left on, put away the tools that HE left out (after doing a project I wanted done), put HIS dishes in the dishwasher I remind myself of one of the wonderful things that he does for our family everyday and I no longer resent my little task. Changing MY attitude made ME happier, which makes HIM happier, which makes ME happier. It's a wonderful circle that grows stronger everyday. Thanks to mom's wise advice and your program and books our marriage grows stronger everyday. We now have a wonderful PARTERNSHIP marriage, where each of us respects and appreciates the other. This July will be 20 GREAT years!Thank you, Dr. Laura - G. Recovering feminist and devoted, happy listener. More >>

Believing In Parenthood Dear Dr. Laura, I was addicted to being "successful" in the workforce, and ran away from being home with my family. I thought it was fine to put the kids in daycare, and "be successful". I was forced home by an injury on the job, and thankfully stayed home long enough to see that the REAL job IS being home with my kids. Now, I do have the best job in the world, and now that I know better, I AM something important - my kids' mom. Thank you for standing up against the "norm", and reminding people that they should raise their own kids. I wish I would have heard you during the years my own parents instilled the "importance" of success in the world. My success as a parent is far more reaching than any project I could have done in any company. Thank you for believing in parenthood. S. my kids' mom More >>

Dear Dr. Laura, My wife is afflicted with ALS, or it is more commonly known as #147;Lou Gehrig#146;s Disease#148;. She is now severely debilitated. She is confined to a wheelchair, cannot hold up her head, drools, and cannot communicate verbally. She has currently lost about 95% use in her arms and 85% use of her legs. There is nothing that can be done to improve her quality of life. Over the next six to twelve months she will continue to deteriorate and will eventually pass away. She will leave behind a husband and two sons that love her very much. Since contacting this disease almost all of her friends and family have disappeared. The excuse most often heard is #147;I want to remember her the way she was#148;. I have seen friends avoid us when I am wheeling my wife around the mall. When we do encounter people, they avoid looking at my wife. It is obvious that they cannot wait to get away from this uncomfortable situation. Every once and a while, someone will stoop down to look at her face, hold her hand, and talk to my wife. When this happens, the transformation in my wife#146;s face is miraculous. She gets the most wondrous smile on her face and her eyes light up like a Christmas tree. The truth, be known, this was the way that I used to behave. It was easier to #147;remember them the way they were#148; rather that face the morality of our species. Caring for my wife for the last two years has changed my attitude. Seeing how my wife responds to the kindness and attention of others reminds me to take a little time, stop and say hello to your friends that are dying. It#146;s hard enough to die, without doing it alone. If there is any lesson to be learned from this, is it more important to #147;remember them the way they were#148;, or have God #147;remember you the way you were#148;? Thanks, J. Carter More >>

Max Messmer from Scripps Howard News Service writes about what people actually put on their resumes: "...REFERENCES: Don't bother. My parting from two previous jobs resembled a horror show..." "...ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS: "I have hauled hay, worked in a gun shop, restored a '62 Ford, saved a life, photographed family weddings, jumped from an airplane and met Paul Newman..." Read Max Messmer's entire column . More >>

Definition Of A Man To begin, my husband is the most amazing father you could ever imagine. He works hard all day. When he gets home, he is tired, but that does not stop him from dropping his things to give each of his children hugs and kisses and play with them until dinner. He is home to have dinner together each night, and he never forgets to ask how each child's day was and what is going on in their lives. After he helps clean up dinner, he plays soccer, card games, reads scriptures, or does any of a million other activities with his family. He prays with them and is there to tuck them in every night. He never misses a soccer game, parent-teacher conference, or program. He includes them in whatever he is doing - even if it takes him twice as long to get anything done. He shows them - by example - to be a good friend. He takes the small moments to teach them life's lessons. It is no wonder that the kids in our neighborhood always want to be at our house. It is because he gives many of them more attention than they are receiving from their own fathers. My husband is a great provider. He works hard and provides our family with much more than we really ever need. He does not complain about taking this monumental task upon himself, he does it because he wants me to be able to stay home with our children. He is self-employed and with that comes a lot of stress and worries, but he never lets it show. He has never put himself before anyone else. He is the most selfless person I have ever met. Everyone else's needs, wants, desires, all come before his own. He has always been willing to help out family, friends and neighbors with anything they have been in need of - and all without complaint. He didn't even complain when he came home from re-roofing a neighbors' house with 17 blisters on his hands, because he didn't have any gloves! I cannot even begin to count the number of times he has put on hold something he has wanted to do so that he could help someone move, trim their trees, shovel their snow, re-shingle their house, or aerate their lawn. My husband has supported me in every endeavor I have ever wanted to try. Not just supported, but helped, encouraged, and complimented - even when some of them must have seemed completely ridiculous. He never makes me feel like my ideas are silly. Even if he doesn't agree, he finds something positive to say about it. My husband is a great leader. For the past nine years he has been the leader of a young men's program in our church. He has included every one of them in every activity (and getting teenagers involved in worthwhile activities is no easy task) but he never gave up. No matter how arrogant or unappreciative they may have been at the time, he ALWAYS had something good to say about each and every one of them. He has never made any one of them feel left out or that they were not important. He has loved them as a father loves his own children, and has been a father to many who have not had one. I recently had each one of the youth that he has worked with over the years write him a letter. The impact that he has had with them is remarkable, and he never takes credit for any of it. I cannot tell you how many parents have approached me to tell me of their gratitude for my husband, and all that he has done, to help THEIR child. Most of all, my husband is willing to love me. I have not been the wife that he deserves. I have placed burdens on him that he should never have to bear. But he is willing to love me in spite of the trials I have given him. For this I am forever grateful, and I will be living my life to try and be deserving of the man he is to me and our family. I want you and everyone else to know how lucky I know that I am to have such a kind, compassionate, forgiving and loving husband. He is truly one in a billion; I could search to the ends of the earth and never find anyone that would even come close to him. I love him with all my heart. Julie More >>

GREAT EXCUSES NOT TO GO TO WORK TODAY If I get up before 10 a.m., I get a migraine. Sitting at the reception desk causes my narcolepsy to act up. I can#146;t drive that far because by the time I get there the car fumes will make me fall asleep at my desk. I have no voice, strep throat, and a slight concussion. I can lay and stand; I just can#146;t sit so I am going to need the week off. A dog bit my Mom. I had to put my roommate in jail. I have insomnia and I slept through my alarm. I have a hundred-dollar bill and can#146;t get change for the bus. I have to go to a wedding on Tuesday and Wednesday. My husband#146;s mother is getting married. (Used the same excuse a month later. My tires were stolen. I pulled a muscle in my neck while exercising. I need to take medicine that makes me sleepy. More >>

"...***For several years, Beloit College has prepared a list of some of the things that differentiate the frame of reference of entering students from that of their teachers and mentors. After all, students of 18, for whom the fall of the Berlin Wall was a topic of their parents#146; conversation, know little of the fears of the Cold War and nuclear annihilation. For their younger teachers, Watergate is a distant memory; for their distinguished senior professors#151;the ones with a pile of vinyl LPs in the closet #151;the Crash and the Depression probably shaped their lives. Courses on American history now need to include Vietnam and the sixties, not to mention the development of electronic communication..." Here are a couple items from their "Mindset List": "Most students entering college this fall in the class of 2004, were born in 1982." "The Kennedy tragedy was a plane crash, not an assassination." "A #147;45#148; is a gun, not a record with a large hole in the center." "They have never used a bottle of 'White Out.'" Read the entire list here . More >>

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