My siblings

Okay, like a lot of siblings, we had our fights and misunderstandings and jealousies and competitions. When Mom and Dad got home from a day away, there was often some complaining about who did what or didn’t do what during the day. But it’s so easy to view our family as a whole, each sibling and their families, and be really proud and grateful for the people that we are. So whatever Mom and Dad did with us, as different as we all are, it worked pretty consistently and well.

I am proud of my sister Gretchen, her intellect and clear-minded view of the world, her and her husband’s worldview and appreciation of simple joys like cooking and home improvement and the outdoors. I’m proud of my brother Paul and his impressive work ethic, his natural gift for working with his hands, his triumph over the educational system to find what was right for him, his natural abilities as a father, his close and active family, his success as a chef. I’m proud of my sister Sarah, her determination and pragmatism and goal-orientation, her love of family and her passion to be a great mom and wife, her dedicated and resilient husband, her courage to make life changes. I’m proud of all their kids, who for all our trials, seem to be turning out pretty well too.

Like anyone else, I’m sure we found some things we thought we’d do differently as parents compared to Mom and Dad. But we learned the most important stuff about family when we lived in a house in Henning and a house in Alcester while we were growing up. Now I can use not only Mom and Dad as great examples, but also each of my siblings—I hope I can borrow some strengths and inspiration from each of them as I begin my journey as a parent.