Q: How do I keep busy at home? I find myself so terribly bored and restless at times. Being a stay at home mom is so boring! What am I supposed to do with my down time? Once chores and homeschooling are done for the day, I literally have no idea how to fill the couple of hours before I need…
Category: Grow as Wife
Q&A: What if I Don’t Feel “In the Mood?”
Q: I would like to see practical tips for how to make it a priority and how to feel ‘in the mood’ when I am so tired… A: Well, since you asked a straight question, I’m going to give you a straight answer. 🙂 I think waiting and hoping to feel “in the mood” may be…
The Gut Punch.
It’s been ten years. Ten years since my husband collapsed and left the doctors baffled. Ten years of us juggling vitamins, managing symptoms, me insisting on naps and good meals. Ten years with no answers, then partial answers, then what seemed like the answer (narcolepsy dx, about 5 years ago). Sometimes symptoms have gone away,…
Getting on the Same Parenting Page as Your Husband
Q: How often do you sit with your husband and discuss how you handle disciplining the kids as a team? And what does that look like during the day when he is working and you are home? Are there instances when you bring things up in the evenings for him to work through with your…
Who Gets Your “Best?”
We have a favorite family recipe called “Dutch Puff.” The kids love the way it rises up, especially along the corners, and as it comes out of the oven, they jockey for who will get which portion. Judging by their reactions, there are definitely winners and losers when it comes to who gets which pieces…
Cooking, Sex, and Giving Honest Feedback
Imagine the pressure– (perhaps you feel this pressure over the holidays!?) Christmas dinner will be at your house, and everyone’s looking to you to make it. Only problem is, you cook infrequently, don’t really know your way around the kitchen, and are relying on ingredients you only rarely use or eat. The pressure to produce…
Can I Help You Be a Better Mom?
Wanna know what one thing has made the difference in becoming a better mother to my children? I made this 4-minute video to tell the answer to that question, and why I write at jessconnell.com. One of the lies moms have been fed in this past decade or so is that “you’re the expert” and that “you innately possess all the mothering…
Mama, Do You Flinch?
Fanny Price is one of my favorite characters in Jane Austen’s literature. She discerns the truth about people, and sees them for what they truly are at their core. Their dressing up, fakery, and flattering does not alter her observations about their character and priorities. This quality makes her a tricky person to have around. In…
Do Him Good!
{Today’s post is a follow-up from Monday’s– Christian Wife, Let Your Husband Be.— where a reader asked, “Beyond having a joyful attitude towards love making and keeping the home a happy sanctuary for him, what are more specifics things wives can do? I know every husband will have different things that are life-giving to him,…
Christian Wife, Let Your Husband Be.
Christian wife, could I have permission to speak into that place where your disappointment resides? The portion of your mind where reality shows up and shows that he isn’t, in fact, the perfect guy you may have thought he was in your early months together? The place where you are tempted to keep an opposite-of-1-Corinthians-13…