Family Musings

Sometimes I impress myself with my brilliance. I have no idea if other moms have discovered this trick to help toddlers use stickers, but I made it up one day out of frustration with helping Mary,  2 1/2 years old, get new stickers to put on her paper. Maybe you've known about this for years, in which case I say to you, why didn't you tell me?! In order to make sure none of my friends can say I didn't share this amazing trick, here it is: Pull the non-sticker sticky paper off the page before you let your toddler work with the stickers. It means all they have to figure out is how to get the sticker off, without messing around with the background of the stickers. This is really great for developing fine motor skills too. And yes, those are princess stickers. Don't judge me. They were on clearance and at the rate Mary uses stickers (a little over 100 on the day I took this picture!) I'm not too picky. They have bug and airplane and dinosaur stickers too thou

Bruce here. I've hacked into Jennifer's blog to post something. I want to share one of the ways Jennifer makes me proud. Jennifer's friends might know that our church started a homeless ministry about a year ago. But, what few people know, is that shortly after the ministry started, Jennifer got the idea that one day a week she would cook dinners for the nine homeless people being served by the ministry. And she's continued that for about a year. Every Tuesday, she cooks a big dinner. Most of it goes to the homeless people. She even packs the food up and drives it the mission. And some of it stays with us and becomes our dinner. Moreover, she makes really good food for this ministry. In fact, the food is so good that I often joke with her that one of the things I appreciate about her ministry is that it means at least one day each week, I get to eat well. It's sort of a joke because she does try to cook well for me other times. For example, a few months ago

I love finding new places to do cool things in my chosen town. And as active as I am in my community and as much as my husband likes to tell people I'm the "stay at home mom who never stays at home," I still find new places to explore with my kids and friends all the time. My most recent discovery is a produce stand called Indian Summer Farms . Obviously though, it is more than just a produce stand. I organized a play date there for my MOPS group and for $5 per kid, we had a great time! Here's a peek at what it included: Feeding the animals in the petting area. Mary had NO fear and walked right up to the goats with her bread. She might have even been a little too bold at moments for this momma! Hanging out in a unusual play area that included a wider variety of toys in an outside area than I ever expected. There are also two swinging tires that the oldest kids really enjoyed. Gave one of the moms a pretty good work out trying to get the swings higher and f

There has been a theme in my life in the past several months. Anyone lucky (?) enough to hear me talk about the problems in the world knows that I always come back to the same solution. I don't intend for things to always turn this way, but it just seems that if people would listen to my advice, the world would be a better place. That sounds awfully vain. I know. But I am not suggesting something new, even though it might feel radical to some. This idea is biblical and where it is practiced, life improves for everyone (but maybe not before it gets a little uglier). For me, it's all about relationships. I honestly feel that, if we are willing to engage in honest communication and let the messiness of life spill out of and into us, then so many things would be better in life. But, what do I mean by "let the messiness of life spill out of and into us"? Good question. What I mean is, if I am willing to be real with other people and not be scared to get into their

When I was a little girl my family spent a lot of time at the beach. I even had a fringed shirt that said "Beach Bunny" on it! One of the many activities that kept my attention was digging a hole to China. Did anyone else ever do that? I can't be the only one. Can I? It occurred to me that no one ever told me I couldn't do it. I don't have a single memory of any grown-up saying that it was impossible to dig a hole through the earth and end up in China. In my head, I started to form a metaphor about letting kids have dreams and ambitions. About never letting them think anything was impossible and the adults all wishing they could have the hope of a child. But then, suddenly, I realized why no one ever told me that digging a hole to China is impossible. Think about it. What reason can you think for not telling a super chatty child that she can't actually dig a hole deep enough and that she'd die from the molten core long before China was even an op

Today, I received an email from my church asking me (and everyone else on the church distribution list) to consider participating in sharing a "cardboard testimony." I've been watching videos of other churches doing this for at least a few years and always hoped I'd get a chance to participate. Then, this afternoon, given the opportunity, I could barely think of anything to share. Figures! Right now I feel like I am in the middle of finding out what the back of my piece of cardboard ought to say. God is still not finished writing my story and I don't really know how it is going to turn out. But, I really want to participate, so I did come up with a testimony that is relevant to who I am now and will be sharing it on Sunday, April 29th in my church's evening service. (If you are local to me, that would be Kathleen Baptist Church . Feel free to come and visit!) Until then, I am watching all sorts of cardboard testimony videos from other churches. Each one

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about how Charlotte fits in with her peers. In part this is because I hadn't been certain that we would home school her and she might end up at the local elementary school. Right now, when I observe Charlotte with her peer group, I think she's a bit socially awkward. She isn't as concerned with personal space as others and is overly enthusiastic for even the small things. It kind of makes me cringe a little when I see them react to her excitement over something they don't consider a big deal. After exploring the issue of her social behavior a little more, I've decided it is important to me because I want Charlotte to have a better social experience growing up than I did. If my memory is correct, I was "popular" until 4th grade. I had lots of friends, don't remember being the object of teasing or bullying, and faintly recall creating an exclusive club for my friends and I to join. However, once 4th grade star