Parenting
On the road to happily ever after
It was supposed to be the culmination of 10 months of learning and effort.
But that’s not quite the way it went down.
Last December my oldest child got her driver’s permit. (Don’t even ask me how she’s old enough for that to have occurred. I have no idea.) Since then, we’ve made a habit of instruction. Giving her regular stints behind the wheel and lots of verbal pointers while she rides along as a passenger. She’s studied the manual, taken practice tests and demonstrated the responsibility my husband and I required for her test for the license.
The big day finally arrived.
Borrowed Glasses: Finding my inner optimist
“Not working!!!!”
This was the scream I’d hear too often from some remote part of the house. It was the battle cry of my youngest daughter, whenever something wasn’t going her way. A short, but fierce, exclamation.
It originated when she was learning to tie her shoelaces. But it soon began to apply to anything… opening packages of food, art projects (it’s hard when your vision doesn’t play out on paper!), and even interacting with her siblings. At thirteen, it’s now become a family joke, used universally for anything that’s not going as planned. But I assure you: it wasn’t always funny. Quite the contrary.
This little darling of mine always has a reason why she can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, didn’t or isn’t something-ing. Peer relationships, classroom work, athletic performance, sibling interaction, and parental obedience. There have been many (many!) days when I’ve wracked my brain, wondering why it’s so hard to walk her through those moments. And then one day, my husband says this to me: Read More
Let’s do lunch
I pack school lunches every. single. morning.
And I have for nearly ten years now. Last week, as I stood in my kitchen, staring down at the empty lunch boxes on my kitchen counter, I got a little grumpy about having to do it again. “I’m so over making lunches.” But, I cobbled together a collection of leftovers, juice pouches, baby carrots and the cursory apple and sent my people on their way.
Just a couple hours later, I stood at the stainless gates that are my refrigerator and bemoaned that there was nothing I’d like to eat. Nevertheless, I rummaged through and found something to throw in my gullet. Read More
The Economics of Grace
He couldn’t even look me in the eyes.
The weight of yesterday’s foolishness on his conscience made it impossible for him to lock his gaze with mine. Though I had tucked him in bed with assurances of my love for him, he still awoke this morning unreconciled.
He’s since apologized and our relationship is restored, yet he still bears a countenance of guilt. I console him again with scripture:
While delivering that truth to his tender heart, I pondered why I don’t often wake with the awareness of guilt that he so frequently does. I’d love to think that’s because I have fully internalized the grace contained in the Lamentations passage. Read More
Put your money (and sunscreen) where your mouth is
I’ve dug my heels in. But I may not be winning.
I make a conscious, daily effort to take a stand against the cultural norms of our day in the area of body image. Yep, that’s me: middle-aged, suburban rebel. Americans worship youth and beauty, thereby shackling women (in particular) with concern over their appearance. We pay thousands of dollars, and spend countless hours, “managing” our bodies as measured in pounds lost, grays dyed, wrinkles stretched/treated/injected, breasts implanted, cellulite extracted, teeth whitened, and the like.
I want something different for my daughters and the young gals for whom I lead Bible study.
When you need a reason to stay in the game
“I don’t want to go.”
My daughter informed me that she had qualified to run in the district track meet but that she didn’t care to. Only the top three runners in each event are sent to compete with students from all the other schools in our area. Her news thrilled me, so I puzzled over her reluctance.
It didn’t take much probing to determine the cause for her lack of zeal: Read More
When you feel invisible. Or worse. (And a little baseball.)
You might think you treat God’s Word as infallible.
But I’m willing to wager you don’t. And that you don’t even realize it.
We may not all agree upon (or even understand!) all aspects of the Bible. After all, we interpret it with limited human thinking. When I have difficulty squaring seemingly-contradictory passages of scripture, I end up praising God that He’s bigger than my pea-brain and am grateful that He and His Word are trustworthy.
“Except in this one area.” Read More
When is enough screen time enough?
Do you ever wonder if you spend too much time on a computer or device?
How much time is okay to spend on the computer… tablet… phone… TV?
I suspect all of us feel a certain degree of guilt about the number of hours spent face-to-screen instead of face-to-face. Especially if we have spouses or children. Me, too. My professional labor (and client correspondence) is accomplished on my computer. I keep my calendar, finances and recipes on my machine, as well. Then, there’s personal email (and its annoying cousin, “courtesy emails” from airlines, stores and the like), Facebook and Pinterest. Most of my screen time feels necessary to life in today’s culture.
And then there’s my smart phone (which seems to have rendered me idiotic since I rely on it as a delegated-memory device). Read More
For when grown women have tantrums over what to wear
When my daughter was young, getting her dressed was a chore.
It shouldn’t have been so hard… she had both a closet and dresser burgeoning with darling Gymboree ensembles. Nevertheless, our morning routines were never pleasant. Many hours were lost to screaming fits over the necessity of wearing pants, shoes and shirts. (She may not have been the only one screaming.)
Tights were the worst offenders. She was certain those tights were going to end up around her ankles. Read More
Christmas Apnea
What do tonsils and Advent have to do with one another?
Seemingly nothing, at first glance. The two have coincided in my life this year, as my daughter is having hers removed today, December 18.
At age twelve, we’ve only recently discovered that her oversized tonsils are obstructing her sleep. Dangling like two red ornaments into her airway, those tonsils cause her breathing to stop about every three minutes throughout the night; her brain arouses her to shift into a position that will enable respiration again. Read More