Ella, 10, the youngest of our three children, is thriving. She has friends from school, in the neighborhood, and online. She sings in a community choir, and occasionally plays with her siblings. Due to Ella’s disease,…
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The holidays are upon us. In our house, Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving. The house gets decorated, winter candles are lit, and Christmas music fills the rooms. The kids are old enough to help decorate. The…
Life can be full of disappointments. They are opportunities for children to learn how to handle them, think about them, and react to them. Ella rolled into the Young Naperville Singers rehearsal full of…
Ella has been singing with the Young Naperville Singers (YNS) for a few months now. Her singing voice continues to improve as she gains confidence. She sings around the house, while getting dressed, and in…
I’ve been working with elementary school kids for 19 years. Every fall, I catch a cold, but the illness is usually short-lived. However, the Casten household isn’t so fortunate. Two weeks ago, my wife, Lindsay,…
The winds howled and the blustery snow started falling early in the day. It was an unusual sight for the last day of October — Halloween. The city was quickly covered in a blanket of wet snow.
There are three Casten kids: Ava (12), Henry (11), and Ella (9). They each need our attention, and will ask for it periodically. Our life is quite crazy. Lindsay is still recovering from the…
The Casten household has a tight budget. I have been a teacher for 19 years, and Lindsay is the director of children’s ministries at our church. We are a family of five — plus two dogs and…
The school was bustling as children and adults exchanged greetings while rushing about. Parent-teacher conferences were underway. I arrived at the school with Ella and Henry, 30 minutes early for the first of two meetings.
We picked up our modified van from our local Honda dealership. The mechanics replaced parts from the door’s mechanism, but it still doesn’t work properly. The company that carried out the original modifications needs to look at…
Ella is the youngest of the three Casten children. Ava, her sister, is 12, and Henry, her brother, is 10. Ella, who turned 9 in June, comes right behind Henry. My wife, Lindsay, and I planned…
We rolled up to the emergency room for the second time this month. The first time, Ella had broken her left foot. Now we were there for the other foot. This particular afternoon, Ella…
Music helps us to express our feelings, dreams, and aspirations. Ella has been to several Young Naperville Singers rehearsals and is loving it more and more. She can’t wait to get there and doesn’t want to…
