Do you pray for and about your child’s future spouse? Many of us do. A couple of my children are moving into the young adult phase and a few of their friends have married. I wonder who will be my kids’ husband or wife or… if one of them will be blessed with singleness like the apostle Paul. Many young people are delaying marriage and are not meeting their mate in high school or college. According to an article in the Huffington Post the average age for first time weddings for men is 28.7 and the average age for a woman is …
Gimme Gimme MINE!
Toddler Rules of Possession author unknown 1. If I like it, it’s mine. 2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine. 3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine. 4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine. 5. If it’s mine, it must NEVER appear to be yours in anyway. 6. If I’m doing or building something, all the pieces are mine. 7. If it looks just like mine, it is mine. 8. If I saw it first, it’s mine. 9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine. …
Temper ‘n’ Tantrums
Temper ‘n’ Tantrums… the TNT of the toddler and (sometime beyond)world. What is a mom to do when her little one drops a big emotional bomb? First things first… 1. Don’t catch it! It is so hard not to participate in a tantrum. Kids want to draw parents into their drama. It’s a way of controlling the adult. The adult may get angry, plead, cajole, give in….whatever….just to make the screaming meme stop. Just remember, your response has the power to impact the tantrums to come. (And there will be more.)Next… 2. Stay Cool. It’s tough remain in control when …
Slow… Children at Play
Slow…children at play. Best. Sign. Ever. May is winding down. (Yahoo! Craziest month next to December-don’t you think?) Summer is rounding the corner. Yes! I want to hurry up and get through May so I can slow down. Moms, summer is the only season that is just a little less structured than the rest of the school year. Here are some fun slow going activities you can do with your kids over the summer. 1.Go to the Library. Yes, actually physically go. Look at the books, pick out a few, some for the kids to read alone, some to read …
Strategies for Shopping with Youngsters
The little one rounded the corner, alone, crying, carrying her pink, velcroed, tennis shoes. She was maybe three years of age, at the most. “Are you looking for your, Mommy?” I asked. I looked around, expecting to see a frantic mama in search of her child. No one matched that description. Then out popped a young mom from behind the shelves of shoes. I suppose she was fearful of me, a stranger, talking to her child. “Oh, look! There’s your mom. See she won’t leave you. She’s right here.” The woman gave me an icy stare and said, “I was hiding to …
Embracing Imperfection
Get a group of moms together for a weekend and what do we talk about? Yep, kids! This past weekend I had the great privilege of being able to hang with twelve other mamas. Some of the women are first time moms and others are grand-moms. All share a great love for their children. We discovered another commonality- all the mamas’ kids have experienced some sort of challenge or struggle. Imperfection is a quality to embrace. Okay, I’ll say it again. Imperfection is a quality to embrace. The goal isn’t shooting for perfection in your child or in …
Just ‘Cuz
Have you ever witnessed the flutter of a flock of geese all taking off at the same time? The sight and sound of the lift-off is impressive. Yesterday while hiking, I saw a goose gaggle. I know, you are picturing what they leave behind. Try and forget that for now… My mind played back an almost forgotten memory of our first dog, Snoopy. She was our pre-kid pup. Tom and I always said it was a good thing she was small, because she’d be one-scary big dog. The terms that best described her were Fearless and Fast. The Snoop’s …
Messy Business
Being a mom is messy business and I don’t mean in the disorderly home kind. Our children, even before they can walk or talk, have the power to turn our world upside down and our hearts inside out. My husband, Tom, and I were concerned about our two-year-old’s speech and language development. We decided to have her tested. During the evaluation follow-up, the speech clinician declared our daughter to be aphasic. She said, “I expect she will never go to ‘regular school’, read, calculate math, or hold down a job.” This did not fit my neatly packaged idea of my …
Praying Cards
My little family has lived in three different states. Minnesota, California, Minnesota again, and Colorado. Every time we have moved it’s been hard to say goodbye to the friends we made and the places we’ve grown to love. So… getting Christmas cards at our home is a big deal. We love hearing from our friends and catching up with their family news. It’s so fun to look at the pictures and see how the kids have grown (not how the parents have aged!). Sadly, another Christmas approaches and we find we haven’t communicated with these special people in the …
Talking Turkey
What comes to mind when you hear the word, turkey? Thanksgiving, a bird, Ben Franklin, bowling, an insult? How odd that one word has the power to present so many divergent thoughts. A couple of weeks ago my husband and I went bowling with a group of family members. I had a crazy streak of skill. I got two strikes in a row! Oh yah! As I clutched the ball for my upcoming turn, my husband called out, “Get a turkey.” I had no idea what to make of that comment. As it turns out, a turkey in bowling is …