Art by messycanvas bumped from the archives I jump when they say, “Boo!” Why does my heart race and I feel alarm even when laughter has covered their faces, and I feel no shame in having been gotten? This fear, where does it come from? ***** It comes from sitting on the toilet and…
Category
Parenting
Day 13 – Owning Our Brokenness – Silver Linings Playbook
The Privilege of School Choice
I don’t talk much about the fact that we educate our kids at home for lots of reasons, but one of them is I’m very aware that it’s a privilege. Choosing to use that privilege, especially now that we’re in a new community where the choice takes on greater socio-economic implications, makes me uncomfortable….
Incarnation – It Means Something!
Conservative Christianity has not taught me to be a healthy person, and it has not taught me how to raise healthy children. The view I was raised with, the advice I keep seeing handed out, the wisdom I listened to for 90 minutes this morning, basically assumes everything needed for life – even for…
Seeing Faces, Not Statistics
The church was always cold. It had a high ceiling and a low budget. The faded carpeted floor sloped gently to the stage at the front, making it difficult to use the round tables in the back. The old white church, complete with steeple, looked as if it had been plucked from a small…
Beautifully Unuseful to God, and an Interview
I am on the neon green blow-up raft, desperately trying to stay afloat, to relax amidst the play of kids. Futile, I know. They’ve decided to play ‘King of the Raft’ instead, and I am being pushed and pulled off, toppled and dunked by 3 small children. Their currency is laughter and they spend it…
10 (+2) Books for the Kiddos
I homeschool, so we go through a lot of books. We own a lot of books. My husband finally had to build me a very large bookshelf/desk/storage unit in our entryway, and that still isn’t enough. (I’d take a picture but it’s really dirty!) All that to say, I love books, and kids books. …
5 Kids Do Not a Quiet Time Make
The kids are all in their rooms or quietly playing outside, the daily after-lunch quiet time attempting to get underway. I sit at my desk, opening my prayer book, wanting connection and peace before I begin to write. I get one sentence in. O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you as the…
You’re Important. Even If You Suck.
Have you ever been sitting at a Little League game, watching your kid play baseball, when it dawns on you that you are the parent of that kid? My moment of realization came when I noticed my hands were covering my face, which was buried in my lap. And then I quickly sat up, afraid…
On Growing A Woman
I look at my 2 daughters and I just sit and watch, amazed. I watch my oldest, who is a mini-me, and I look at what she accomplishes, and I think, where did she get this? She builds amazing contraptions, her engineer father’s genes apparent. She loves to paint and cut and collage. She has…