Oh no, I groan inwardly as I slide into my seat on the crowded Southwest Airlines plane. The only remaining isle seat is not just at the very back of the plane. It’s also next to a woman sitting next to her preschool son. Her loud preschool son. This is going to be the longest hour-and-twenty-minutes of my life, I gloomily predict. I am wrong. As time literally flies by, I am first amazed, then awed, and finally deeply moved by the vibrant relationship I witness beside me. After we land, I wrack my brain for a way to tell …
Welcome to Holland, by Emily Perl Kingsley
❀❀ Here is a wonderful essay by Emily Perl Kingsley. She has given us all a wonderful snap-shot of the experience of having a child born with a disability, and allows us to feel some of the emotions that go along with it. ❀❀ When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip-to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It is all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day …
10 Ways to Help a Single Mom
As the sun began to sneak a peek through the horizontal lines of my mini blinds, I was reminded that another hectic day awaited me. It wasn’t easy being an early bird and a night owl in the same skin, but as a single mom who was struggling to be all and do all, I didn’t have any other choice. Each day held its own basket full of burdens for a girl who wore too many hats and juggled too many plates. An overflowing to-do list is a constant in any mother’s life. There is breakfast to cook, lunches to …
Parenting Teens thru Spring Break
What will your teen do over Spring Break? Maybe you’re in the sippy cup years, looking ahead with fear and trembling to the Facebook years. How can we watch out for our teens in today’s world? Last night I feel asleep to the sound of laughter drifting upstairs from young women in our basement. Two are on the threshold of college; two others are are signed up for the ACT. All are counting the days ’til spring break. If the teen years are such a vibrant time of life, why do we dread parenting through it? You can prepare yourself …
Putting Out the Home Education Fires
For those that home educate, the subject of avoiding burnout presents itself a lot. Often times it comes at the end of a school term. For me, it can come when I’m planning curriculum for my six children! Decisions, decisions! Aggravation comes in the middle of the day when I’m being overwhelmed by having to choosing to repeat myself several times to one child; even when I’m sitting next to them and calmly explaining what the lesson is all about. I’ve learned to walk away. Simply…walk away. There are different temperaments in each home, that of the mom’s, dad’s …
Revelations of a Mama Prayer Slacker
Let Me Be Honest I don’t know about you but I’m one of those gals that doesn’t ever really get around to praying except at meal times, church, or I’m not getting my way with our Almighty Maker. I have to say that was me until recently. The dynamics of prayer time has changed and so has my heart towards it. First I’d like to say God does hear all of our prayers, every one of them. Secondly, prayer time is a way to build your relationship with Jesus who intercedes for us. And thirdly, it awakens the power that was instilled …
Shaping The Heart
Raising strong-willed children is like having an army of toddlers in your home. These iron-willed babes will test every boundary and challenge any directive given. Please tell me you know what I’m talking about, do you have a stubborn kiddo that you love so much but he/she makes you want to pull your hair out? I’m hoping y’all can relate to the limit testing sessions my youngest has been devising since she entered the terrible three’s (Twos were a breeze mamas; it’s the threes we need to prepare for!) She has decided that pottying everywhere other than the bathroom is way …
Kids and Technology: The “Guinea Pig” Generation
I should have seen it coming. Almost two decades ago, Daniel and I scrutinized the ten or twelve boxes of cutting-edge “educational software” at CompUSA, finally settling on Reader Rabbit. Back home, we devoted the evening to learning the program, ourselves, so that we could help our daughter with it, during the upcoming weeks and months. We stayed up past midnight, and I’m pretty sure we high-fived each other for being such with-it, tech-savvy, forward-thinking parents. Forty-five minutes. What had taken two college-educated adults hours to figure out together took our 3-year-old less than one hour, all on her own. …
How to Be a Good Mentee – A Mentee’s Role
While many women dream of being the perfect mom who has all the right answers, never raises her voice and never has to count to three, we all know it’s not always easy being a mom. Those sweet little bundles of joy don’t come packaged with instruction manuals or warning labels and moms are often left to figure it out on their own. But we weren’t meant to meander through motherhood alone. It’s admittedly a bit more difficult to have someone join your journey as a mom, but it certainly will give you a broader scope of reference, a well of …
Gathering Treasures Together
Guest Post by Cheryl Ludwig Proverbs 24:3-4: By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; And by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. We all long to know the deep treasures and riches found in God’s Word so that we can share these beautiful jewels with our children. We desire to see their hearts and minds filled with wisdom so that as they mature they know how to filter every day through the lens of God’s Word. This will give our children pure and right thinking in the face …