Family Life

The Joy of Big Boys
[caption id="attachment_6735" align="alignleft" width="300"] Training the next brother to work the booth.[/caption] We're getting ready to fly out to California for the CHEA Bay Area Homeschool Convention this weekend. I'm still part time on crutches, but as I was thinking through the trip, I realized I'm not worried. See, we're taking two of our teens…
Putting Faith in Shoe Leather
Our son Matt takes the blog today: I know that God can, has, and will take care of us. I have seen the healing hand of God protecting and providing for us through every heartbeat, every breath, every moment, every day of the year. I know that God will be our strength, our fortress, our…
I Want to Give Up (But I Won’t!)
Melanie has a recurring dream that she is back in college, final exams are approaching, and suddenly she realizes with horror that she’s been signed up for a class that she’s forgotten to attend all semester. Thankfully, that never actually happened to her, but that kind of panic feels pretty familiar sometimes. We’ve had a…
Preparing for College
When we were thinking about high school and preparing for college with our first, we were worried about academics, but now that we’re graduating our third, we’ve realized there are other things, sometimes even more important, that you need to pay attention to along the way. Teach your young adults to be responsibly independent. It’s…
If Mopping Floors Isn’t Manly, Why Do They Call Sailors Swabbies?
“I never ask my son to do housework! That’s a woman’s role, so the girls do that. He only does outside chores,” a friend once said. Uh oh! Melanie thought, I’m sunk. We didn’t have any girls back then, just a not-so-neat dad and a houseful of very active and thoroughly messy boys. Actually, though,…
Real Men and Abortion
What does Raising Real Men have to do with abortion? Everything. Years ago we lived in a town with an abortion clinic and often stood outside offering to help the desperate women that came there. Although everyone had a different story, in many respects they boiled down to this: the baby's father didn't take responsibility.…
A New Tradition for New Year’s
When we think about New Year's, what comes to mind? Glitzy parties, fireworks, watching the ball drop, Auld Lang Syne, or perhaps if you love classical music, the Vienna Philharmonic playing The Redetsky March. Oh, and resolutions. I always liked the idea of starting new when I was younger, but I had an appallingly bad record…
Is Destruction in Their Wake Normal?
A reader asked: As a mother of 4 young boys, (oldest is 10), we have a lot of furniture, walls, toys, etc destroyed in their wake. Is this normal for boys??? I feel like I can't have anything nice around. Dear Friend, I feel your pain! The frustrating part about raising girls is that they…
Just Do the Next Thing
At an old English parsonage down by the sea, there came in the twilight a message to me. Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven that, as it seems to me, teaching from heaven. And all through the hours the quiet words ring, like a low inspiration, 'Do the next thing.' (more…)
Making Winter Cooking Easier
Mmmmmm… how nice to think of just waltzing over to the freezer and back to the oven to produce a lovely dinner in the midst of the holiday rush. We were forced to learn freezer cooking. Melanie has always had train wreck pregnancies with  lots of bedrest time. We quickly figured out that we’d have…

On Christmas Break, but Check the Sale! Dismiss