How to Be a Mother
Recently we asked our Facebook page what people wanted us to write about. Several asked "How can mothers have a good relationship with their sons?" Our friends Marilyn and Rick Boyer helped us a lot with this topic in the articles they called Learning to Delight in Your Children. It helped us to clarify something we've…
Moms tend to be big fans of Valentine's Day. We love relationship stuff, chocolate, hearts, and flowers. Boys? Not so much. Chocolate is good, but the rest is kind of gooshy. So what do we do about Valentine's Day in a houseful of boys? If you've been around here for awhile, you know we love…
Growing up, my mom always made snow cream (but never from the first snow of the season, though we’ve abandoned that rule as lacking scientific basis :-) , but what we really loved were her Snow Joes. I’ve never heard of anyone else making such a thing, but it was like snow cream, but chocolate.…
The first night of Boot Camp 9-12 is always so entertaining. We start off by describing the early signs that your child is entering puberty (and no, peach fuzz and a cracking voice are actually late signs). We talk about how kids in that stage start having huge emotional swings, from rage to tears, get…
A friend asked recently: Ok ladies, it's time for me to do some major/drastic behavior boot camp in this house. I am committing to staying home for several days, going nowhere and do nothing but set straight some major behavior issues we have here. I need some advice, though...How do I handle/tackle my 4 and…
This has been a pretty sobering week for many homeschool families. A very prominent leader and speaker in Christian homeschool circles confessed to an inappropriate relationship with a woman and resigned from his ministry and speaking engagements. As speakers ourselves, we and our children know most of the other families on the speaking circuit, so…
The headlines have been everywhere this week. Grand Theft Auto V is out and, to listen to social media, everyone is super-excited. Well, not everyone, but it sold $800 million dollars worth the very first day! And it has over 4.3 million fans on Facebook. We were thinking about this today when we read the…
We are thrilled to announce that we'll be hosting an hourlong weekly streaming radio show on the new Ultimate Radio Network! Our new show, Making Biblical Family Life Practical, will be the Hal & Melanie you guys know and love -- there will be lots of back and forth and humor, but also pointed, principled…
I am posting this for the children of a friend, who just lost their mother unexpectedly. I wrote this several years ago when a dear friend's mate died. As I read over it just now, I thought that others might benefit if I posted it more publicly. My dear young friends, I am writing because…