love to paint

A while back, I began to read a new book that's just been published.  It's titled different: The Story of an Outside-the-box Kid and the Mom Who Loved Him by Nathan and Sally Clarkson.  When I had seen the description of this book, I had been very curious about it.  One of my very favorite parenting books is The Journey of the Strong Willed Child by Kendra Smiley.  One of the things I love most about that book is that it includes both her perspective, her husband's perspective, and her son's.  I learned so much from seeing their different sides.  This book by Nathan and Sally Clarkson is very helpful in that same way--it is written by both Sally Clarkson, the mom, and Nathan Clarkson, her son. This book tackles many issues parents struggle with today: anxiety, depression, ADHD, and mental illness.  Nathan lives with OCD, anxiety, and depression.  Sally homeschooled Nathan and his siblings throughout their growing up years, so she lived with ...

Parenting. It's stretching.  My heart feels often like it's being pulled.  Honestly, my sanity is being pulled!  And then there's the hurting...  Hurting when another child says something mean to your child...or when an adult says something hurting to your child... or they are slighted or mistreated... or when one of your children says something about another that hurts.  I think they all hurt horribly.  And when our children get off track, we hurt. So, what do you do with that hurt?  I look to my friends.  I ask questions like I did last Sunday of my friend Jenny.  I asked if she had ever encountered what I was trying to tackle with my kiddos last Saturday.  We talked and it helped.  It gave me food for thought.  I do this a lot.  I talk to my friends who have children just a few steps ahead of mine or at the same place/age as mine.  It helps give me perspective that I'm not alone, reminds me to hope, and helps m...

I enjoy reading parenting books and over the past ten years I've found a few that I love ( Shepherding a Child's Heart , Journey of a Strong Willed Child , Growing Grateful Kids ).  But, in all that time, my husband hasn't read any.  Typically, they aren't written in a style that he enjoys.   I should note that he has also only found two books on marriage that he has enjoyed reading (Mike Mason's book on Marriage and John Piper's book, This Momentary Marriage ).  Christian Parenting and Marriage books are often written very similarly.  They often have a lot of formulas in them... "If you do this, then..."  And they can feel very fluffy and feel good, while not getting at the heart of the manner.  They can also come off as a huge dose of "self improvement, feel good" teaching.  I've read many that fit these statements. But this weekend, I actually found a Christian "parenting" book of sorts that my husband is interested in read...

One of the things that I've noticed among many homeschooling moms is that we get concerned about the morals and lessons in the stories our children read. I remember when Autumn was a year and a half old, I began reading Curious George stories and realized that almost all of the time there are no consequences for George when he's done wrong.  I was so alarmed and at first I wanted to give away all of our Curious George books.  But, my daughter loved monkeys and I couldn't quite bear to give the stories away.  Then, I had my second daughter and she loved the stories too, so the stories stayed.  We all loved the PBS George series and that cemented George's place in our home.   Reading obviously matters a lot to me.  I've thought a lot about what I read, what my children read, what I read to them, and why.  Several books gave me some wonderful food for thought and I'd highly recommend them if you haven't read them.  Gladys Hunt wrote three books-- H...

It is 12:38 a.m. and I am wide awake.  This is unusual for me.  Actually, it's very unusual for me!  For the past few weeks, I've been struggling to stay awake come 8 p.m. each night.  Today I had my first dosage of prednasone.  I do need to take it so for the next 2 weeks I am going to probably be forgoing my morning cup of coffee and taking my dosage as early as I can in the morning--in the hope that the "wired" effect will wear off as much as possible by the time I need to go to sleep. I've never done drugs, or taken no doze, or drank more than half a glass of wine, so the feeling that I have right now is pretty weird.  I have to take this for 2 weeks because of multiple exposures to poison ivy, sumac, or oak.  Blech!  Still this "wired" effect is much better than the alternative that I had dreaded--a visit to the hospital. I thought I would share what happened because it's interesting to me to see how our health care system works today. ...

What is the point of parenting?  What is our goal?  Is it to have well behaved kids?  Is it to have kids we are proud of?  Is it so that we can live through them?  Are they the point?  Are they supposed to be the center of our lives?   Here is what three books on my desk say: Tim Kimmel says in his book Grace-Based Parenting that we are to equip our children well so that they can move into adulthood as vital members of the human race...(he) didn't say "as vital members of the Christian community." We need to have kids that can be sent off to the most hostile universities, toil in the greediest work environments...and...not be the least bit intimidated by their surroundings.  Furthermore, they need to be engaged in the lives of people in their culture, gracefully representing Christ's love inside these desperate surroundings." p. 9 Here's another author's way of putting what the goal of parenting is:  to raise great kids.  A gre...

My girls crack me up.  We have many interesting conversations.  Sometimes Autumn tells me that she doesn't want to become a Mommy when she grows up because it's too much work.  I explain to her that being an adult is work.  Being a Mommy is a good thing.  Sami then asked what surgery you can have so you won't have children.  I asked her why?  She said that she wants to be a construction worker and she can't have children if she does that.  I explained to her that she could, but that she'd have to take a break while she is pregnant.  So, then the conversation switched to who they would marry. Sami said she would someday marry her brother Eli.  I explained to her that she couldn't.  She asked why.  Well, because you can't.  You're not supposed to.  It's wrong.  None of those explanations worked.  So, finally I said.  "Because God didn't plan it that way.  He has another man for you to marry someday...

One of the hardest things about parenting, I think, is that it is constant. I am continually reminded of how I need to keep a better eye on my children. It's hard to imagine what it will be like in a few years when they're older. But, I suspect, I'll have to keep my eye on them in a different way =) then. Juggling three kids while shoveling snow is not a good idea. Yesterday, I went out by myself. Today I went out with them. I am realizing that I need to simplify things and only try to tackle one thing at a time--otherwise it just gets tricky fast! I only have two eyes =) I really wish sometimes that I had 4--though that would look very odd!