Category: Parenting
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I Didn’t Want to Leave Church on Sunday
I especially didn’t want worship to end. As is often true for believers, sometimes the hardest weeks end in the most intimate worship. It is something inexplicable to those who don’t know Christ. Praising an invisible God despite disturbing news and years of seemingly unanswered prayers. Those kinds of hard…
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I Can’t Be All Things To My Kids
Gulp. I said it. Once upon a time, I really believed I was all things to my kids. That is probably normal for young Moms with small children. Or, maybe I was just an egomaniac, but I’m going with the fact that I was young and inexperienced. I hadn’t yet…
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The Berenstain Bears Keep the Faith
What’s not to love about The Berenstain Bears series? The book, Keep the Faith, will not disappoint either avid Berenstain followers or those brand new to these books. Author Mike Berenstain (son of the original Berenstain Bears authors: Stan and Jan Berenstain) does a terrific job of creating an age-appropriate…
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Shhh…I’ve Been Doing “Nothing”!
My husband and I are both “A-” personalities. I know a few true type A’s, and while I admire their daily sanitized and shining kitchen floors, that’s not happening in my house! Therefore, I’m an A- to a B+ on most days. I share this to illustrate the truth that…
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The (Un) Enthusiastic Mom
Ten years ago I had a quote on my cork board in my home office. It read: “Be the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.” One of my friends spotted it one day and laughed, “That’s you alright.” At the time, I was also reading the book, The Power…
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I’m Going to Read the Entire Bible – This Week!
I have days when I’m disappointed with the amount of time I’m spending on worldly routine vs. the time I’m spending connecting with God. About six times a year, I resolve to “get better” with my spiritual disciplines. These (often unrealistic) resolutions usually go something like this: Get out of…
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The Ducks Will Follow
Walking through my favorite local park, I stopped to watch a Mama duck cross my path with her four offspring. The waddling brood weren’t babies and they weren’t fully grown, so I immediately identified them as “teenage” ducks. Three of them followed the Mama in a perfectly straight line, stopping…
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Does Violence Really Make Games More “FUN”?
A significant number of my 19-28 year old male college students would give a resounding “yes!” to that question. I asked an informal research question in one of my classes, asking the guys if their Xbox violent games were more “fun” when they contain more violence, more killing and more…
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The TV Show The Middle is Funny. Everything Else “Middle”… Not So Much.
Sure we all like the show The Middle. But I like little else involving “The Middle”. How about you? Middle Age is surprisingly everything everyone older than me said it was. There really are aches and pains when you wake up in the morning. You really do notice that…
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3 Teenagers with 97 Practices and 68 Games – In 60 days.
My girls each play one fall sport and my son plays two. Since he has a lighter ice hockey schedule this year, he joined Varsity soccer as a second sport. The above title does not include Saturday morning recreational soccer games for my oldest two. And, lest you judge us…
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Getting Ahead or Enjoying the Moment?
Recently, my daughter had her very first job interview. After we decided on her outfit and printed a copy of her resume, I wondered if they’d offer a 401K plan. Although utterly absurd, the thought really did cross my mind. While I should have been enjoying the moment, I zeroed…
Tales from a Mid-Lifer 