It was a sad day when I sent my youngest child off to school! He was number 13, and so I’d had a little one at home for over 27 years! At first, I felt so lonely! “What do I want to do with my time?” I asked myself, and realized I want to help Families! I do have something I can share with other families, I decided: lots of trial and error in the Parenting department! Not only had I raised (and was still raising) my thirteen, I had mothered my own brothers and sisters before that, as 2nd of 11 children. I had studied this very thing in college: Family Living is the name of my degree!

Now, here I am. My youngest is almost 12 and I still have two teenagers at home besides him. I get to see 10 of my grandchildren several times each week, and teach them “Grandma School.” Thankfully, they share the babies with me!

So I want to help. I truly want to help anyone who is perhaps at wit’s end. There are so many daily dilemmas that come up each day. “What do I do now?” I picture someone asking. I decided to gather many different ways to solve a situation, hoping one or two of them might help you!

You’ll quickly see, as you read, that I am Christian. I approach everything with prayer, and constantly enlist the help of my Savior. In fact, I am Mormon (a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). I use the Bible and the Book of Mormon, coupled with words of prophets, many times in my posts. I keep finding that truly, time after time, “The Answer is More Love.” May you find answers to your own struggles and prayers in these words.

Incidentally, it was my dear Dad, Jay Richardson, who championed the phrase The Answer is More Love. He lived it as his motto, and encouraged us to do the same. As far as we can tell, the phrase was coined by a Jesuit Priest, Gene Jakubek, in his book of the same title, published in 1968. –Marlene Ellingson