Earlier in the day she showed her younger siblings a website called Khan Academy that teaches math, also for free. The twins plowed through algebra for an hour, scribbling all over a sheet of paper while they figured. 

 

I know a woman who married a man from South America. She describes the culture there as one where generations live together, and independence is not esteemed the way it is in the United States. Needing people is considered a good thing. Families live in multi generational clumps, and they show up with food and help more smoothly than sometimes happens in this country.

 

The other night at marriage group many of us arrived in a slump. We had wrangled with kids and jobs, appliances and traffic. Then we did something called Brag time, where we tell the group what we appreciate about our spouse. I was touched by the stories of how husbands and wives had helped each other with real problems. One husband took the kids for both days on the weekend, so his wife could catch up on sleep and then work late. She looked very grateful. Another team of two had figured out the complexities of carting kids and turkeys through rush hour, and how to ease the strain on both of them. They smiled as they told us.