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HOME & LIVING TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020 THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — 3B PARENTING ADVICE Making home the safest place your kids know By Heidi Stevens Chicago Tribune My son’s English teacher has been running her fi fth- graders through a very cool exercise. She puts a statement on the wall and the kids have to place a card next to the statement that says “strongly agree,” “agree,” “disagree” or “strongly disagree.” Then they discuss their answers as a class. One of the statements was, “Every American has the same freedoms.” That one got a fascinating conversation going on our ride home from school last week — about whether having the same freedoms is the same as hav- ing equal ability to exercise those freedoms. From what my son said, it got a pretty great conversation going in the classroom as well. One of this week’s state- ments was “It’s easier to be a kid than an adult.” (Or something similarly worded. I realize I’m getting the paraphrased version several hours later.) My son picked “agree.” (“We get recess!” he told me.) I picked disagree. A few weeks ago, I was watching my daughter take diving lessons. It’s a new sport for her. Everyone else in her class has been at it for longer — years longer in a couple of cases. She’s deter- mined to catch up. I sat in the stands — dry, warm, fully clothed — mar- veling at the sheer number of times kids try something new on any given day. The number of times they put themselves out there to possibly fail, to possibly get rejected, to possibly get hurt, to possibly love something, to possibly fi nd a match, to pos- sibly feel like, fi nally, they fi t. It’s really something. I think we adults, on the whole, do less of that. I sat in those stands wracking my brain for the last time I tried something utterly new and wholly unfamiliar. I tried to calculate the number of risks I take. The number of times I step out of my comfort zone. The number of times, in an average month, I walk in a room full of people socializing and don’t know a soul. Not that many. Adulthood inoculates us from a lot of that. Maybe that’s for the best. Living in a constant state of heightened risk and burgeoning identity and fl uctuating friendships wouldn’t lend itself to a lot of what adulthood requires, particularly the parts of adulthood where we’re caring for others. But I think it’s worth remembering, as we care for those others — especially if those others are kids — how bruising all that new stuff can be. How tender a person can feel after trying some- thing new, possibly failing, possibly getting rejected, pos- sibly getting hurt, possibly falling in love. I want to remember it as I set the tone in our home. Family therapist John Duffy, my pal and my pod- cast partner, writes about the vibe in our homes in his new book, “Parenting the New Teen in the Age of Anxiety.” In early therapy sessions, he asks the kids he works with, “As you cross the threshold, do you fi nd home to be more of a refuge or more of a stressor?” “Too often, the answer is the latter,” he writes. “Home feels tense and stressful for a lot of of teenagers. Some kids tell me their parents don’t get along. Others tell me it’s too noisy at home, and others too quiet. Some feel judged whenever they are home. Some feel they are under constant watch, and some feel invisible.” Duffy encourages parents to check that vibe. To try, where we can, to fi ll our homes with laughter and conversation. To do a little less policing and a little more relating. Even when our kids are pushing our buttons, pushing our boundaries, pushing us away. “Your job is to hang in with her, even in the aw- ful moments,” he writes. “How mighty and noble and warrior-like it is as a parent to stay in the game, and hang with your child, in the face of a slammed door, or rejection, or a wretched attitude. Be- cause when they come to you, they let their guard down. They vent. They transfer, or download, a day’s worth of stress and fear and identity traffi c and anxiety into the safest place they know: you.” The safest place they know. No matter how many new things they tried — and succeeded or failed at, lost or gained — that day. What a lovely, lucky mis- sion. Niacin: B vitamin that can help raise your ‘good’ cholesterol level Mayo Clinic News Network Niacin is an important B vitamin that may raise your HDL, (“good”), cholesterol. Find out if you should talk to your health care provider about taking niacin alone or with cholesterol medications. Niacin, a B vitamin, has long been used to increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol — the “good” cholesterol that helps remove low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the “bad” cholesterol from your bloodstream. But niacin isn’t for everyone. People who take niacin in addition to common cholesterol medica- tions see very little additional benefi t. And niacin can cause uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous side effects. What is niacin? Niacin (nicotinic acid) is a B vitamin that’s used by your body to turn food into energy. Niacin also helps keep your nervous system, digestive system and skin healthy. That’s why niacin is often a part of a daily multivitamin, though most people get enough niacin from the food they eat. When it’s used as a treatment to increase your HDL cholesterol or correct a vitamin defi ciency, nia- cin is sold in higher doses that are prescribed by your health care provider. Prescription-strength niacin includes such drugs as Niacor and Niaspan. Niacin is also available as an over-the-counter supplement. Supplements sold over-the-counter are not regulated like prescription medications. The ingredients, formulations and effects of over-the- counter niacin can vary widely. Don’t take niacin without discussing it with your health care provider fi rst because niacin can cause serious side effects when taken in high doses. Dishing dirt on the ins and outs of container gardening sun requirement of 6 hours a day for most vegetables is fulfi lled. When container planting became Edible gardening continues to a new concept in gardening over be popular, holding steady with an 20 years ago, most gardeners used average of 30 million households participating in vegetable gardening the various sizes of the black plastic nursery pots or the half wine bar- over the past fi ve years, according to the National Gardening Associa- rels. Now containers are artistic and tion’s Gardening Survey. Container available in a variety of materials gardening has become one of the most popular and fastest gardening including galvanized metal. Utili- tarian fl eece-like fabric gro-bags methods. A vegetable garden doesn’t have are successful and available in a variety of sizes. Vertical gardening to be the conventional in-ground is encouraged to make use of fences, garden plot. The vegetable garden can be a mixture of containers on a railings and trellises. Clay pots dry out easily, which patio, deck, or balcony as long as the By Liz Douville For EO Media Group BLAZERS makes them a perfect match for herbs that aren’t fussy. Thyme, oregano, sage and tarragon would be good choices. Going back to the days when the method was new, many gardeners gave container gardening a thumbs -down. The thumbs -down came from gardeners being disappointed with the small yields of their favor- ite veggie that had been grown for years. That’s when plant breeders real- ized there was a need to develop smaller varieties that would be prolifi c in a restricted growing en- vironment. Heirloom varieties were land was even better. The “Bill was magnifi cent,’’ Blazers were 50-10 when Ramsay recalled. “Had he Walton went down with been able to continue, I Continued from Page 1B the ankle injury. He never And during that 1976-77 think he would have been recognized as the best center played for Portland again. championship season and There have been other to play the game.’’ the fi rst three-quarters of In the boisterous celebra- nearly great Portland teams. the following campaign, With the backcourt of tion, Walton ripped off his Walton was magnifi cent. Alongside him was Mau- jersey and threw it into the Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter and the explosive rice Lucas, the “enforcer’’ at crowd. play of Jerome Kersey, the The following day, a sea power forward. Bob Gross of humanity perhaps a half- Rick Adelman-coached team moved up and down the made it to the Finals in 1990 million strong poured onto baseline as the small for- but lost to the “Bad Boys’’ of Broadway for the celebra- ward, with Dave Twardzik Detroit. at the point and Lionel Hol- tion. Walton tried to ride a The following season, bike but eventually lost it lins as the shooting guard. 1990-91, Portland compiled (it was later returned). In When Twardzik was hurt the best record in the NBA the ceremony at Pioneer in the postseason, rookie Johnny Davis took his place. Courthouse Square, Walton (63-29) but lost to the Lakers poured a beer on Mayor Neil in the Western Conference While Walton was dif- fi nals. The Blazers made it Goldschmidt’s head. fi cult, Lucas was terrifi c to The following season, Port- back to the Finals in 1992 me. So was Twardzik. Ram- say enthusiastically orches- trated it all while wearing Providing our community outlandishly colorful pants hospice care! as he prowled the sidelines. The team won a tough best-of-three series with • Symptom & Pain Management Chicago, then beat Denver • Education for Caregivers in six games before sweep- • Emotional & Spiritual Support ing the Lakers to advance • Grief & Loss Services to the fi nals against Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers. (541) 624-5800 • GoHOSPICE.com Playing at home, the 76ers won the fi rst two (with Philadelphia’s Darryl Dawkins and Lucas instigat- ing a melee in Game 2) but Portland squared the series with two wins at home, then pulled off a crucial victory on the road to come back to Portland up three games to two. A huge crowd greeted the team at the airport. “We Win It Today’’ pro- claimed a banner headline in the next day’s Oregonian. And they did. Walton was named the Finals MVP. extraordinary brought back. Nursery catalogs and garden centers are now fi lled with varieties identifi ed with attention -getting tags such as patio, baby, mini or container-suitable. Toma- toes, cucumbers, eggplant, mini roasting peppers, watermelons, cantaloupes, even 4-inch globes of cabbage have been developed for our continued fresh vegetable choices. It is important to match your container’s depth to the plant’s expected root growth. Deeply rooted vegetables, such as tomatoes and eggplant, should be grown in pots 1 to 2 feet deep. Shallow rooted vegetables, such but lost again, this time to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Meanwhile, Walton conquered his stuttering so well he became a pontifi cat- ing character alongside poor Dave Pasch, the versatile play-by-play announcer charged with steering his co-worker back toward the game. Walton doesn’t remember me, which is not surprising. as lettuce, radishes, beets, onions can be grown in shallow containers. If you like DIY projects, what do you have that could be recycled as a planter? Just be sure to drill drain- age holes if the item doesn’t have any. Like woodworking? Make a trellis for cucumbers or beans. Reuse old potting soil if your plants weren’t diseased or insect- infected the previous year. Remove the top 6 inches and refresh with new potting soil. Consider containers with casters or use caddies under your pots so you can move them more easily on hard, fl at surfaces. But Ramsay, who coached the Blazers for 10 years then did NBA radio broad- casts for ESPN well into his 80s, always said hello. If you can dig up a video of that 1976-77 team, do it. You’ll marvel at the constant motion Ramsay’s system employed. The NBA wasn’t quite as big a deal back then. Games during the week were tele- vised on tape delay. But no matter, Portland had its big moment to shine. www.lagrandeobserver.com www.bakercityherald.com
