With Your Family in Mind

As we grow older, we are likely to ask ourselves the questions, “Why am I so cold?  What does it mean?”  Chances are your body is merely going through a natural dip in metabolic rate due to the aging process.  A lowered metabolic rate affects the body’s ability to maintain what is considered a “normal” temperature of 98.6 degrees.  When metabolism slows, so does the body’s ability to generate heat.  This means seniors can become chilly or downright cold in the summertime or even inside during winter with the heater on.
There are other reasons a senior may be unduly cold.  Encourage them to seek medical advice in order to properly diagnose the reason they are unable to stay warm.

As graduate students we are provided many experiences showing us the right and wrong ways people should support children and families.  In our first five weeks as interns at Inner Circle Foster Care & Adoptive Services we have seen children not only have the opportunity for a second chance, but we have seen whole families blossom as a result of the services and the warmth provided by Inner Circle.  Inner Circle chooses to remain relatively small compared to other Los Angeles FFA’s to uphold its quality over quantity ideology.  As a result we have been able to witness and observe the meaningful connections these children make with their caregivers in just the short time we have been here.

A reader of The Magazine of Santa Clarita recently asked what skills are necessary for audiobook narration.  I explained three of 10 different skills needed.  Here’s her question again, and the fourth skill explained.
Q:  I’m a professional commercial voice actor, but I’d love to get into narrating audiobooks, and don’t know what specialized skills it takes to do it professionally.  Are there any guidelines I should know about before attempting to jump into this arena?  Thanks in advance for your info.  –Selina H., Westlake Village, CA

It began with a shoulder tap, asking an adult to purchase a fifth of vodka, drinking that vodka at a local movie theater, being disruptive and picked-up by the police for disturbing the peace, landing him in jail.  To make matters worse, his disruptive behavior turned into anger as he kicked the windows out of the jail cell he was in, thus adding a felony vandalism charge to his troubles.  His legal troubles have just begun.
Rumors abound in Santa Clarita about high school proms.  A number of teens shared a ride to and from the dance in a rented limousine; but that’s not all they shared.  Most of them imbibed and shared the liquor found inside the limousine cabinets, getting rip-roaring drunk.  Does riding in a private limousine mean underage students should be drinking?  The answer is no.
A father of a local high school football player began looking for his son when he didn’t come home from the party he attended the night before.  He found him passed out under the bushes several blocks away, too drunk to respond to his father’s voice and touch.  So, the paramedics were called to the scene, to find him almost dead from alcohol poisoning.

Here’s an all-too-typical situation:
A family consisting of mom, property owner, and her two adult sons, comes to the office.  They tell the attorney their story:
Dad, property owner age 80, died recently.  (Condolences extended, acknowledged.)  Mom and dad had a living trust, which they executed several years ago.  They had taken care of business, pretty much: Once their trust was formed, they had changed title to most of their assets to “mom and dad property owner, trustees of the property owner family trust.”

“The question isn’t at what age I want to retire, it’s at what income.” – George Foreman.
Beginnings are so often filled with dreams.  Couples marry; build a family; and work to create a secure future including retirement planning.  Retirement funding can be generated in pensions, savings accounts and deferred compensation plans.  How does divorce affect those dreams?

According to the May 2011 VA demographic report, there are approximately two million World War II Veterans, and many more surviving spouses of these benefits.  However, there are only about 300,000 receiving VA Aid and Attendance benefits to assist with their care costs.  Based on these numbers, I believe many elderly veterans and their spouses could receive financial assistance from the VA to help pay their care costs, but simply do not know the benefit is available, and are not applying.  

Many people who aren’t addicts suffer from addictive personality.  An addictive personality describes someone who has a high vulnerability to participate in behaviors they may, or may not, consciously know is wrong for them.  These are often called bad habits or negative behavioral patterns.  The most common ones are:
• Relationships: Creating negative patterns in our personal relationships can include “drama,” abuse, dominance, submissiveness, passive-aggressiveness, to name a few.
• Drinking, drugs, smoking, sex, over-eating, thrill-seeking, and other behaviors that are done to excess.  This type of behavior can become very destructive. 

Periodically (and, unfortunately, all too often) we get calls from clients:
“Do you have our original, signed living trust documents?”
“No, I’m sorry.”
“Are you sure?
“Yes.  We make it a practice not to retain clients’ original documents.”

Many debtors that I assist are not aware that Homeowner’s Association Fees (HOA Fees) can often be discharged (removed) in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.  The assumption many debtors make is that the debt must be paid if they want to keep their home, or that the debt is automatically secured.  In many cases, however, the past due HOA fees are not secured by the home.

True happiness comes from doing what you are most passionate about, and while most see truth to that in the workplace, have you ever thought about how it impacts a student’s success in school and in life?
Sir Ken Robinson is well known for a few things, including his online lecture “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” and book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.  In both, Robinson addresses children, and how they are all unique with certain interests, natural talents, an inborn curiosity, and capacity to learn. 

Sometimes overlooked by family law judges is the legislative policy that each party has attorney representation in family law proceedings.  This often becomes an issue in low and middle-income families and was recently addressed in a Court of Appeals’ decision in a case entitled Alan S. versus the Superior Court.  In Alan S, the Court noted that the purpose of §2030 was not the redistribution of wealth from the greater income party to the lesser income party, but rather to provide parity, a fair hearing with two sides equally represented.

Something’s missing in our world today.  The same thing is missing in our churches.  And, if you’re willing to look closely, the same thing is missing in our families.  This can mean only one thing… that the same thing is missing in you and me.
Can you guess what it is?  It’s peace.  What we desperately want and need, we don’t have.  We talk about it… dream about it… pray for it… and hope for it!  Yet, it continues to elude us.  Why?  Because we are unwilling to do one very important thing… forgive.

Last month, a reader of The Magazine of Santa Clarita asked what skills are necessary for audiobook narration.  I explained two of 10 different skills needed.  Here’s her question again, and the third skill explained.
Q:  I’m a professional commercial voice actor, but I’d love to get into narrating audiobooks, and don’t know what specialized skills it takes to do it professionally.  Are there any guidelines I should know about before attempting to jump into this arena?  Thanks in advance for your info.  –Selina H., Westlake Village, California

Remember that childhood jingle “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me?”  You would sing it with such conviction, using it as a shield to keep their words from penetrating too deeply.  And when your friends (or enemies) did hurt your feelings, you would either lash out or just try to pretend it wasn’t really that bad.  Why should they know you were crying on the inside?
As a child you learned that the world and the people in it could hurt you.  People either let you down or failed to follow-through. 

Ever been to church, heard a so-so message, and left thinking, “Good.  That’s done.  Now back to the things that matter.”  Or, have you found yourself really trying hard to hang with a speaker but all the while wondered “what does this have to with me, my life or the things I care about?”
At NorthPark, our messages are thoughtful, practical, and inspiring.  Senior Pastor Dr. Dave White is a highly sought after, traveled and trained speaker and teacher. 

Traits in children and teens begin early.  Inner Circle Foster Care and Adoption Services gives foster families and preparing adoptive homes the training that helps adults recognize the importance of teaching, modeling, and encouraging good character.  We ask families to introduce children to their community and civic participation.
We ask our families to inspire children with books and stories about heroes and heroines. 

What are the areas a family counselor can help with?  Name it, a professional, trained, objective perspective can make a world of difference.
Relationships: Learning to communicate properly, treat each other with respect, learn to value your partner and have them value you, understand each other’s conscious and even subconscious needs wants and behaviors, improve intimacy, find tolerance and create unified parenting (this is a big one).