All I want for Christmas is… what? The answer to that question could determine the success or failure of your Christmas experience. As a parent, the question is: What do we really want for Christmas? Don’t we want something that will last on into generations to come? Something powered by more than batteries. I have never heard anyone say, “We have a great family tradition of giving each other video games for Christmas. It’s been an awesome part of our Christmas for generations. It’s what brings us back home each year.” There are many electronic things we could get for […]

Wow, parents…we have made it to August!!! For that we should be high fiving and patting ourselves on the back. Next up… the fall! The beginning of school year, or not, or yes, or we don’t know yet. While things may still be seemingly out of our control, we first need to remember they are not out of our Father’s control. We can be still in that. And regardless of what your family decides to do, or the district decides, one thing we can control is what and how we communicate things to our kiddos. What are they seeing in […]

Usually when we think of July, we think of celebrations, cook outs, fireworks, beach days, maybe even family vacations…but this year is different. These times for our country are so tumultuous, so uncertain. We can’t however, continue living in a state of survival mode in our homes. We are going on month five of living in what seems moment to moment, and February’s normalcy seems like a life time ago. So what can we do? We can try as a family to shift our focus.    Faith The first thing we can focus on as a family is our Faith.  […]

As we are heading into the most unusual end of the school year any of us have encountered, there are a few things that will help us as parents. We have been homeschooling for a while now and are probably at a point of getting antsy. For many of us, as things start opening up, it could create new challenges. Worry not about tomorrow First, we need to remember to take one day at a time. Matthew 6:34 reminds us not to worry about tomorrow… we just need to focus on today; tomorrow will take care of itself. Marathon, not […]

To my teenager, I just finished reading about another victim of our social media era. You don’t know her, but you probably know other girls like her. Jessica was a teenager in Ohio who texted a photo of herself naked to her boyfriend. This photo was forwarded to other students in other high schools in her city. Jessica was so humiliated and so devastated by the violation that she committed suicide. She felt she couldn’t go on living with that photo of her naked body posted on the web for all to see for the rest of her life. As […]