Opinion

After having the grandchildren here for a couple days to celebrate Christmas, I noticed a word that seemed to work itself into many of the conversations – the word, No! Realizing that many of my decorations are not “kid-friendly” the parents of our three soon to be two year old grandsons were saying things like: “No, just look at the manger scene” or “No, do not take the orna- ments ou the Christmas tree.” Even our four year old granddaughter Charlotte needed to be reminded, “No, Charlotte, we cannot open presents just yet!” After doing some research, I learned that the average toddler hears the word ‘no’ an astonishing 400 times per day! At first I felt that 400 times seemed to be an exaggeration. However, just stop and think about how often we say things like: “no running, no throwing, no hitting, no jumping on the furniture, etc.” We are constantly telling our children how NOT to act – instead of telling them positive things like: “walk please, put it down gently, be gentle with your hands, or sit on the couch please.” Even though it is good for children to learn the word ‘no’ and what it means, I feel that we use the word ‘no’ more often than looking for or saying a positive statement.

I hope everyone enjoyed the mild temperatures over the weekend. We had plenty of low to mid 30s across much of the state, while southern Minnesota saw some upper 30s and lower 40s! These temperatures were 15 to 20 degrees warmer than average for this time of the year.

My youngest child decided recently that she wanted to become a dog mom. She wanted her very own pet that would be just hers. So when one of her friend’s families adopted a dog for their grandmother, only to find out she didn't, in fact, want a dog, my child volunteered to re-home the dog. Thus, another rescue animal joined the household, which should probably now be called a zoo.

To write about a thing, like, say, I don’t know, hypothetically, an ode, you might really want to have an intimate knowledge of the thing. Or perhaps you might want to really get to know thing, so you spend hours and days and weeks researching the thing. Or you might chat with experts, folks that spend their life studying the vicissitudes of the thing.

This time of year, ev - eryone's talking about one thing: how much collective weight we put on in December. (I know I did my part.) On a related note, they're also talking about New Year’s Resolutions or NYRs as no one calls them.

January is Slavery and Human Travcking Pre vention Month as well as National Stalking Aware ness Month. WoMen’s Rural Advocacy Programs, Inc.

The weather the last two weeks, I swear, was out to get me. Each day that there were events planned to be covered for the paper, and tasks that must be done on specifically those days, the weather lashed out and made everything come to a standstill. With canceled events, can -