The 1970s was a time of tremendous turmoil and change in our society. It was all about Vietnam, human freedom, liberation, conservation, Zero Population Growth, and saving the earth for future generations. With eight children, I was living in the midst of my own population explosion -- and turning heads whenever I packed them all with me into a restaurant or grocery store. Those were challenging times, interesting and fun times. This book speaks to life's challenges, the search for human freedom and spiritual growth. Putting one foot in front of the other on a daily basis. And for me personally, it was a challenging time -- raising eight children and facing a failing marriage. Come, and share with me the big and little things that make life worth lifing.
About the Author: Marilyn Catherine McDonald has been a professional writer since 1967. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees while raising eight children. Then, as a single parent she returned to the work force for the first time in 25 years and climbed the corporate ladder. She worked in the fields of corporate communications, advertising, public relations and publication production. She has served as an officer in several professional communications organizations. In addition, she volunteered as a suicide-crisis hot line counselor, a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for abused and neglected children, and a recovery counselor to women in prison. A 25-year marriage to the father of her eight children ended in divorce and was followed by 22 years of single parenting. In 1999, she married Harry Taylor, the widower father of her son-in-law, Dee. Her husband Harry is a 26-year Air Force retiree and they travel every chance they get - by land in a 20-foot motorhome or by air to countries near and far. Over the past 11 years they have been all over the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, and Canada. They spent an entire month in Australia and New Zealand, and have been to Japan, Singapore and Pago Pago, American Samoa. For five weeks during the summer of 2003, they traveled by automobile visiting more than a dozens of cities in Europe, including the city of Prague. In 1006 they traveled by train stops across Germany, Austria and the Slovak Republic to join a Danube River tour from Budapest, Hungry to Bucharest, Romania. After which they traveled by plane and train to Warsaw and Berlin. They went to Egypt in 2010, before the uprising. As a result of their love for travel, Marilyn became a travel writer - while working on book length projects. When they are not traveling, Harry and Marilyn are at home in Beaverton, Oregon or along the Sea of Cortez in Baja Norte, Mexico. The Mother of Eight book is a collection of columns Marilyn wrote for the weekly Community Press in Portland, Oregon, for more than three years during the dramatic seventies.