As Rebecca sat down to eat breakfast, her 17-year-old daughter accidentally knocked over the milk. “The kitchen towel is behind the flour,” Rebecca said.

“You’re always bossing me around,” her daughter replied. By the time she returned to the table, tears were smearing her mascara. Just then Rebecca’s son walked in and burped loudly. Immediately her daughter’s fury turned on him.

Not a great way to start a morning, is it? Daily, parents of teens witness the incredible highs (“I aced my biology test!”) and the inconsolable lows (“No one will ever ask me to homecoming!”) that come during the adolescent years.

Caring for Aging Loved Ones

It’s been a year and a half since Mom went to be with Jesus. I don’t begrudge her heaven, but the process of getting her there was a beast. Likewise, the process of my recovery from caregiving has been harder than expected.

Two-and-a-half years of caring for Mom full time took a toll on my health. Some of my relationships suffered. I faded into the background at church. I got out of healthy routines. I felt left out, left behind and alone. I also felt incredibly old.

Mom’s death wasn’t the end of my caring for her, either.

Abominable (PG)

A Chinese teen named Yi is grieving her father’s death, and her life is sent spinning even more when a big, furry, slightly wounded Yeti shows up on her apartment building’s roof. Yi must help the creature escape from a Shanghai billionaire and get back to his family.