Family Life
We're a family of readers. One of our boys' first word was "book." I remember watching our first son when he was 18 months old. He was obviously play-acting something: standing beside a box and carrying on a babbling conversation, then turning away briefly, then coming back. Storekeeper? No, we realized; he was playing…
Recently we wrote about how to effectively parent a pre-teen son with a crush. It's not a real, mature sort of Christian love, but a 11- or 12-year-old doesn't realize that … it's feels real to him! So we recommend you take it seriously enough to talk about relationships, not just laugh him off. An…
Last week, one of my friends lost her battle with cancer and went home to be with the Lord. Monday afternoon, while I was sitting at her funeral, the Lord gripped my heart hard. My friend Cathy was a true Titus 2 woman. You couldn't know Cathy without knowing she was a Christian. She loves…
If you can tell a story in 30 seconds and you had $4.5 million to do it, you could have bought a commercial spot during the Big Game this year. If you're like the rest of us, you may be looking forward to the explosion of persuasive creativity which plays out this weekend. Commercials are…
One of our webinar participants asked a simple but significant question: When two children have an argument, how do you determine the truth when the two disagree? What do you do when you get two different stories? "Mama, would you please lower the boom on somebody?" Often when the kids have a disagreement, we only…
A mom with several boys asked us, “How do you handle the constant ganging-up on each other?” (more…)
A lot of us are watching the budget very carefully this year. What heartless elf put open enrollment for health insurance right before the holiday season? (If it's giving you pain, check out what we did.) And rich or poor, if you have a large family (like ours) you naturally look for ways to make…
One of the great joys of the holiday season is the chance to spend time with family members that you don't get to see the rest of the year. Unfortunately, that's also one of the stressful things about the holidays – extended family that you don't see the rest of the year. (more…)
This time of year, the housework goes into high gear - cooking, cleaning, and all that, getting ready for the holiday rush. If your home is like ours, the cry for "All hands on deck!" is deep, often, and heartfelt in November and December! When we were a boys-only family, though, a friend with daughters…
A dear sweet friend of mine nearly lost her son the other night. Just a few seconds, maybe a minute more and she'd be planning a funeral right now. Here's her story: Sam, our fourteen-year-old, came stumbling into my bedroom on Saturday night at ten, crying pretty hard and saying, "Mom, I don't know what happened,…
On Christmas Break, but
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