Expecting. What does that word even mean? Expecting what? The obvious answer- when we’re talking about motherhood- is a baby. And everything we think comes with the baby. But what we aren’t expecting, what we can’t be expecting, is exactly that- everything that comes with a baby. We see a picture in our head, of […]
The Parenting Hills You Don’t Want to Die On, Part 3/3
(Alternatively titled: My Wrath for the Bath) Okay, now that you know I’m not big on fashion statements with my kids and I don’t believe in potty training…what else have I thrown out of my parenting repertoire? Baths. Maybe I’ve gone full blown insane, but if so, I don’t want to be sane on this […]
The Parenting Hills You Don’t Want to Die On, Part 2/3
(Part 2/3) Last week we started looking at some things, over time, left by the wayside in parenting. Things that don’t really matter but things I have majored on in some way during my early parenting years. Things that may have felt a little bit like a hill to die on, at least back then. […]
The Parenting Hills You Don’t Want to Die On, A 3 Part Series
Part 1Have you ever had something that was a hill to die on (for you)…and later you realized that thing just didn’t really matter? At every stage in my life, I’ve got some of these– and I know there will be more. When someone tells us “this is the way to [whatever],” especially when we […]
Sweet Fragrances in a Time of Social Isolation
I haven’t been to a parade in … a really long time. But I remember as a kid my favorite part about parades was, well, what every kid’s favorite part is—the candy thrown out into the crowds! Free candy!!! Unless you were at the back of the crowd, in which case you probably didn’t get […]
To the Parents Who Never Signed Up to Stay at Home, and the Ones Who Did
This one’s to all my friends who find themselves at home in ways they’d never planned to be…and also find their children home with them. My friends who are trying to work from home, and care for their kids, while the world around us is in some kind of weird chaos. It’s weird to work […]
Words for When Everything is Weird (and Everything is Weird Right Now)
This morning my sweet daughter looked right at my husband and said, “and later you can get one coronavirus if you want to.” He let her know he’d pass on that option, and then our six year old prayed over breakfast, “please help everyone stay well and not get the coronavirus, unless they already have […]
Idealizing Motherhood
This week I was reminiscing, back to days in my late teens and early twenties. I would rise early, way before my 8 AM class just so I could try to be first to the quiet study room on the dorm hall– to sit read the Word, then study for any exams I had coming […]
What’s the air like wherever you are?
Do you ever travel? We aren’t big travelers– not because we don’t enjoy (some forms of) it, but because it isn’t something we prioritize in our budget, and honestly, it isn’t always easy or fun to load four kids up to take them on the road. And fancier forms of travel are out of the […]