I get irritated with my kids when they take things for granted. I sometimes catch myself saying these guilt-inducing phrases: – Don’t waste food. Some kids have nothing to eat. – You guys need to take better care of your toys. Some kids don’t have any toys to play with. – I know you don’t […]
Category Archives: Mommy Madness
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share via emailTrudging Toward Understanding
There are frustrating moments in homeschooling when I think, “Why am I doing this?” Usually it’s one of those days when Carlie can’t focus, is making annoying, repetitive noises, mumbling through her reading, huffing and puffing over every assignment. Thankfully, those days are rare. There are also joyous moments that carry us through. Carlie’s joyous […]
Stubborn and Starving
This is a depiction of stubbornness. It might not look like it, but this adorable little girl in the blue sparkly tutu is testing me. Lela is a picky eater, so we have a rule that she has to take one bite of what we are serving. If she doesn’t like it, she doesn’t have […]
“Bad Guy” Blessings
Recently, our five-year-old son, Luke, innocently asked, “Mommy, why do we have to love our enemies too?” Simple question. Not-so-simple answer. At first, I said, “Because Jesus tells us to love them.” But then I realized this was the spiritual equivalent of “because I said so” and I decided it wasn’t good enough. I was […]
One-Size-Fits-All: Parenting Pipe Dream
Once, when Lela was a baby, she took her diaper off and made use of her few moments of naked freedom by pooping on the floor. Carlie called frantically for me, and when I walked in the room, she pointed at the mess and said “Lela (GAAK) pooped (GAAK) on the floor (GAAAAAK)” and then […]
Aggravating, Awesome Life-Detours
When I was in middle school, my family was doing a local revival and someone invited me to a football game and a dance on Friday night. I REALLY wanted to go. I was at that age where friends and social events were everything, and since I traveled and was home-schooled, these opportunities were rare. […]
Big Fat Reality Check
Every day is filled with lessons and reminders. This day, my lesson started while hauling my heavy load up a big hill. The kids are at ages now where we want them to make good choices for themselves, so we have been talking to them about being active, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, etc. They […]
Happiness Is . . . NOT Cooking (Embracing Our God-Given Passions)
I wish I liked to cook. Some people look at recipes and see them as delicious opportunities, but when I look at them, I just see WORK. Not only the work that goes into the actual recipe, but all the advanced planning of going to the store to buy ingredients (often an adventure with three […]
Little People / Big Lessons
When Keith and I had kids, we had this misconception that we were going to teach our kids about life. And we had it half right – we just didn’t realize that our kids would teach us just as much. We are constantly surprised by what they say and do, especially when it comes to […]
Embracing and Letting Go
The other night I had an interesting experience with my daughters. My 8-year-old, Carlie, wanted to sleep in my bed (something I rarely agree to, but Keith was out of town, so I relented). As we were lying in bed, both reading books to get sleepy, she seemed so grown up, and I realized how […]
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