Book List 2018: Parenting and Otherwise
Who has time to read? This busy parent does. Yes, it is wedged between after school activities and homework. It is interrupted countless times. It is done next to looming piles of I-should-be-clean…
Tag: mothering
Adoption Stories: And Birth Mom Makes Eight
This guest blogger is my childhood best friend, Andrea Esh. Chill to the core and one of my favorite people in the world. Here is her adoption story. Birth mother. To some that word strikes fear…
God Believes Women: The Bible Story I Tell My Girls
It is the best of times to be female and it is a lousy time to be female. But mostly the best, with only a trace of lousy. As everyone attempts to define women, decide their rankings and judge t…
Why I Didn’t Cry on the First Day of Preschool
I'm tempted to think it is because I am an unemotional, cold-hearted jerk. Maybe you are tempted to think it is because I never carried him in my belly and my attachment is not as strong.…
Our Failed Adoption: Why Parents Should Never Compare
The van ride was warm and bumpy but at least we had no air conditioning whatsoever. The kids fiddled with our camera, taking videos of shanties and clothes drying on bushes until the tiny to…
Long and Short: Parenting Beyond This Exact Moment
"Hey little brother, sneak into big brother's room. He has candy. Get some for us." What would you have done if you were around the corner from that discussion? Intervened? What a grea…
Parenting Your First Kid Vs. Parenting Your Last
"I don't know what's more exhausting about parenting: the getting up early, or acting like you know what you're doing." -Jim Gaffigan My Sweet and I have seven kids. And because th…
ReThinking Christmas
Christmas Love One year it was so tall and round we had to keep whittling away at the base so we could stand it up in our entrance. The living room didn't stand a chance to host it that year. Big …
Your Kids Will Benefit from This One Thing for the Rest of Their Lives
It was a life jolt, one of the few experiences I can point to as a Game Changer. It rattled me then and it rattles me still, affecting all of the months and years in between. Out of the country for…
4 Ways to Get Scripture into Your Busy Life
The alarm clock rings. Feet shuffle and your day begins. Serve. Hustle. Grind. The alarm clock is set again. You lean into your pillow, exhausted by the day. Anybody? Once upon a time, I h…