Tales from a Mid-Lifer

Tag: Parenting

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Is It Really All “Small” Stuff?

    In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s when the “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: And It’s All Small Stuff” books were at the height of their popularity, I would read the title and wonder, “What about the Mom of twins who just found out that she has stage 4 cancer?…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Paying for Other’s Bad Behavior Is Making Me a Little Cranky

    Now in my mid 40’s, I’ve officially experienced enough of life where paying (in time or money) for other people’s bad behavior, no-show tendencies, and last-minute procrastination is making me cranky. Over my adult life, when I or my kids have received unfair treatment, I’ve definitely handled it firmly, but…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Is College Worth It?

    There are two dominant themes throughout the book Is College Worth It? by William J. Bennett and David Wilezol:  1) overpriced higher education and 2) considering the heights of underemployment and unemployment currently rampant among recent college graduates – a questionable return on students’ investment. Bennett and Wilezol provide an…

  • My Empty-Bucket List

    For many years, I’ve conducted an activity with my college students, asking them to create their own version of the famous “Bucket List”.  I warn them that the list should not include professional goals necessarily, but rather focus upon the “really neat”, “exciting”, “extraordinary”, places, events, activities, etc., that they…