I WOULD call it the immaculate conception, but my husband thinks that's both naive and sacrilegious...so I won't. Back in January, I decided to go to Urgent Care to get some antibiotics. I had been sick for weeks and assumed I had some kind of vicious bacteria growing inside of me. I thought I would stop by Rite Aid on my way and get a pregnancy test so that when the doctors asked if I was by any chance pregnant, I could confidently present to them my answer and get on the strongest Read More
Earthquakes and House-Fires and Bees….Oh MY!
It all started when I read my six year old's writing assignment for Thanksgiving: Tell me something that you're thankful for: A-Z. Most kids would happily write of apples, balloons, cats, and ducks. Not my Haley Jane. Listen to letter A: I am thankful that Aligatrs are not in are howse. Letter B: I am thankful that nuthing Bit me. Fast forward to Letter X: I am thankful I nevr so a fox. Haley is acutely aware of all the traumatic things that could possibly occur in this world, and this Read More
Green Grass
On Tuesday, I was having a funk day. It was probably just fatigue after a jam-packed weekend, but nonetheless, every little chore felt monumental. I was sitting in a exhausted stupor after lunch watching the kids nag each other, depressed that all my training and hard work with them had been in vain. This came after a discouraging day homeschooling as Haley's backwards 5s and Zs almost sent me to the psychiatric ward. So there I was, sitting and thinking about how I needed find a better job Read More
Broccoli with Lemon Juice
For making it to the top of the staircase on one of her positive-behavior- reinforcement charts, Darcy earned a ticket for a date with the parent of her choice. She chose me. I was flattered and whisked her off one evening to Panera for dessert by the fireplace. I had run across an article about taking time to ask your children questions and really listening to their answers. As she sipped on her smoothie and nibbled on her cornbread, I took some of the suggested questions Read More
Ever After..
My husband wrote this on our anniversary: Today is our 8th Wedding Anniversary. It's always hard to believe we are getting older, but we are edging ever closer to ten years of marriage and that is unfathomable. These are the moments we say, "time flies" or "before you know it," hoping to capture in words our sense of the fleeting nature of life. I must say...I like marriage. Not so much because either of us are very good at it, but precisely because we are not. There is nothing more rigorous Read More
Middle of the Night
How do you shield your children from the reality of death? Do you pretend it isn't a fact of life and ignore it? Do you guard them from thinking about it and constantly divert their attention to juvenile things? Or do you talk candidly about it, helping them think about it in a healthy way? The reality of death is really everywhere. You really can't teach your kids Bible stories without running into this theme rather quickly. Disney films don't even try to hide the fact that people pass Read More
Road Race (Icelandic style)
We finally discovered an Icelandic running website that advertises different races around here, so Friday night we decided to go to an evening race in the outskirts of Reykjavik. Colby and I both wanted to compete which meant the girls were coming with us in the jogging stroller. The 9K race started out on a very narrow trail, so Colby and the kids were literally in last place for the first mile in an effort not to hold any one up. The kids could not understand this, and the whole first mile I Read More
A Good Word
So, Colby is reading a Puritan Paperback's reading list this year. The other day he read a quote to me out of The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes. I have been chewing on it for quite some time now and thought it was blog-worthy. The devil and his instruments would soon devour the servants of God...if He did not cover them with the golden feathers of His protection (Psalms 91:4). God's watchful eye is always on his people, and the enemies shall not do the mischief they intend; they shall not be Read More