Category Archives for "Motherhood"

Day 11: Short Term Missions: What My Daughter and I Learned in Mexico This Christmas

  This post is Day 11 of Vibrant Homeschooling’s “12 Days of Christmas Teachable Moments” series.  Click here to access previous posts in the series. It was 10:52 p.m. and my daughter and I were driving. The streets were nearly empty as our pickup truck—filled with cans of food and other much-needed supplies—slowly passed the dilapidated […]

12 Ways to Make Crafts With Kids Stress Free

Making crafts with kids is always a joyful experience, right? A stress-free, lovely exchange of ideas where kids happily share items and keep a perfectly clean space. Oh wait, that’s not what it looks like in your house when your kids do a craft project? Nope, it’s not mine either. But wait–there’s still hope. Crafting with […]

How to Build Relationships with Your Kids Through Everyday Moments

At first glance you’d think that building family relationships is simply about spending more time together.   While this is true, we have to ask ourselves about the quality of that time together. What are your family interactions like? Is there lots of sibling conflict? And what are your interactions with your kids like? What […]

When Good Parenting Means Letting Go

I dropped my son off at youth group tonight for the first time. Gulp. So many emotions raced through my mind. Things that I wasn’t prepared for or had even expected to feel. The biggest one of all was the simple letting go. “I’m kinda nervous,” he admitted with a shy smile as we walked […]

He Still Does the Miraculous (Even With Pouty Pre-Teens)

“We need to talk when we get home,” was all I could barely manage (at least all I could barely manage calmly) as the kids and I were getting back into the car after a very frustrating 45 minutes in a local department store. All four kids were there, but one in particular—the one that’s […]

Turning the Tables: When A Child Brings You Comfort

I stormed out to the mailbox, desperately needing a breath of fresh air. Not even the country air and beautiful surroundings brought me comfort this time. I clearly needed more than just space—I needed an entire recharge. I was mad not only at the situation, but at how I’d responded to it. With tears of […]

Discovering (and Celebrating) Tiny Miracles

“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”–Ralph Waldo Emerson  It was a small thing, really. No one stood up and gave a standing ovation. In fact, I’m guessing that no one even noticed. But for my eleven-year-old (and for me) it was as if he’d leapt to the moon […]

When Kids Argue and Fight

 Dear Lord, we are at a loss. My husband and I don’t know how to get our kids to love each other. We pray regularly for peace and continually ask for help in controlling anger and frustration in our home. We share numerous examples with our kids of how real love acts (and doesn’t act), […]