What My Dough Belly Tells My Girls
My daughter couldn't have been more than eight the first time she came to me sobbing about being fat. Fat? You're a kid. You hardly know your addition facts. I was shocked at the language coming fr…
Things I Stink At and Why You Might Care
I have disappointed myself with my mothering too many times to count. I stink at a lot of things, these being the first on my mind: 1. I have a hard time finishing. I will organize my kids cloth…
Pros and Cons of the Big Family (According to the Parents)
Photo by Impressions Photography Married young and naive, my husband and I decided to go big or go home. After all, we loved Yours, Mine and Ours and chaos sounded like a great idea. We eventually t…
We are Catching On
God loves to showcase on the outside, what he is up to on the inside. We see it all over Jesus’ interactions with people. He fed the crowds and then he talked about being bread for their souls. He …
Pros and Cons of the Big Family (According to the Kids)
Photo by Impressions Photography Those seven, they are all ours. And, much to their exasperation, they belong to each other. None of them remember what a small family feels like because the first …
Three Things I Want My Kids to Know by Age Three
There are so many things we want our kids to know before they leave our houses in a cloud of adulthood. Hundreds and thousands of things. A few years back I read a book entitled 8 Things No Kids Sh…
To Travel or Not to Travel: Five Reasons to take Kids to the Developing World
When our first little person was five months old, we packed up our earthly belongings and jumped ship for the Big Red country across the water. So began our fifteen years of international travel wi…
Overwhelmed with Needs: a Lesson from the Slums
The ribbon of red dirt was littered with plastic bags and the gullies convinced us this should not be a road. The houses were shacks and the creeks were sewers. The children were as pl…
Moms, This is How God Feels about You
The day was classically sunny and warm. The grass in the yard was coarse and different from what I grew up on. Thailand was always a breathe of sweet relief to me and my little family. It meant tim…
One Thing I Know about You and Your Kids
We have probably all done our share of people watching. If you have little kids, it is at the McDonald's playplace or the beach or the park, while you keep one eye trained on the chaos you claim as yo…