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 […]
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I wouldn’t describe myself as a political person. I love our country and care about the issues, but you will not find me with a sign in our yard or a bumper sticker on our car. I try to stay engaged enough to understand how to vote on issues, but distant enough to keep my […]
Trudging 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 […]
Living “The Gift”
When Carlie was younger, she chose crazy themes for birthday parties. My favorite was her sixth birthday, when she wanted to have a “mud and flower” party. We had mud pie contests, served “dirt cake,” planted flowers in little pots as party favors, and of course, had pools of mud for the kids to roll […]
Top 20 Disturbing, Strange and Funny Southern Phrases (that I can recall)
(Okay, this one is just for fun and will be a big deviation from the things I usually write about. We were visiting my family in North Carolina for Thanksgiving, so I guess it put me in a redneck state of mind. So this post doesn’t really “fit” the blog, but it’s fun to venture […]
“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 […]
No Matter How Bad I Act, I’m Still Holding Back
I love the Bible, but there are some seriously irritating verses in there. The truth is hard to hear sometimes, especially all the stuff about praying for your enemies, forgiving people, rejoicing in the midst of trials. Maybe there’s nothing in the Bible that bothers you, but if we are all being honest, there are […]
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 […]
More Than A Name
Ever had one of those moments where someone surprised you by saying your name? When I was a college freshman at Chapel Hill, I was given the opportunity to participate in a work/study program to help pay for my expenses and gain some experience. I interviewed at the Dean’s office of the Kenan-Flagler Business School, […]
