Kids Need Church. Even if Their Parents Don’t.
It has been six (Seven? Ten? Three hundred?) weeks since my family has rushed out the door on a Sunday morning, shoes in hand, yelling over our shoulders to hurry up for crying out loud. I have ha…
10 Tips for Throwing Jesus a Birthday Party + a Wish List
From the simple birthday cake with finger smudges around the hay sprinkles, to a whole day affair, our family has gone big and stayed small. Our celebrations have been huge hits and truthfully, our c…
Why I Don’t Celebrate My Kids Inviting Jesus into Their Hearts
It had been a big, colorful week for my younger half. They look forward to this week of VBS like a parent looks forward to bedtime. With three free hours of alone time five nights in a row, you had …
My Most Overwhelming Day: To the Mom with Littles
“You know what it’s like having a fourth kid? Imagine you’re drowning, then someone hands you a baby.”-Jim Gaffigan When our twins were born, my husband and I did a headcount and discovered we had…
What Leaving the Mennonite Faith Taught Me About Parenting
If you were a kid in the '80's, you either had a Big Wheel or were jealous of the kids who did. Reclining behind the oversized front wheel, a kid could feel more powerful than any tricycle-sized per…
Top 10 School Supplies Every Middle Schooler Needs
She bounced into the living room and declared that she had found her "second school outfit." The white denim shorts had made the cut because big sister had worn them last year (works for me),…
People Always Assume Our Big Family Homeschools: 5 Q’s to Consider When Making the Schooling Choice
We sat down at our weathered farm table together. I fiddled with the salt shaker. He leaned back into one of the mismatched chairs with his hands behind his head. My husband and I were about to ha…
If Not His Hands and Feet, Then What?
I set up a blue, borrowed card table and tried to steady it on the uneven dirt of Highland Park in Brooklyn, NYC. The dollar store puzzles were opened and ready for my first batch of seven-year-olds…
Silent Yelling and the Myth of Being Unprepared
"Mom, there were about twenty different ways you could have handled that." Although my preteen son got a scolding for saying so, he was much too right. I had just given my kids a Silent Yellin…
What My Daughter and I Saw in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp
The green, three-wheeled taxis drove confidently into the sloping west side of the Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh. My daughter, my team and I drove passed large food distribution centers and a few el…