Over the weekend, I was thrilled to attend a homeschooling conference with two days of teaching from Dr. Voddie Baucham and Dr. Tedd Tripp. Whoo! The main focus was how to make sure that we are clearly announcing the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus in our parenting and in our homes. Talk about a power-packed weekend; it was phenomenal! I want…
Putting Essentialism Into Practice (Mom On Purpose, Day 2)
First I asked myself, What is the most essential thing for me to be doing right now? Then I reminded myself of the reasons why I want to DO those essential things. I’m not under the illusions that mere DOING is going to change my heart, my home, or my family. So I wanted to remind…
No, Jimmy Carter, Male Headship Does Not Equal Sex Slavery
First. Why am I talking about this? Don’t I normally talk about mom stuff? Dear Mom in the throes of raising little ones, here’s the thing: YOU’VE GOTTA FIGURE THIS STUFF OUT. Our culture is ramming gender-sameness down our throats. Male and female are exactly the same. You’re not allowed to say boys and girls…
12 Things Every Mommy Needs to Remember (Mom On Purpose, Day 1)
Yesterday we asked: AM I DOING THE MOST ESSENTIAL THING? Thoughts about essentialism and how it squares with my job as a mom have been swirling in my head for weeks. Saturday, it all came to a head when I realized I didn’t have my phone. My hands patted and searched, frenetically panicked like Bilbo Baggins’ hands when…
The Question Every Mom Needs To Ask Herself
How you answer this question affects everything. It’s a game-changer. It’ll make or break the way your day goes. But perhaps even more importantly, it’ll affect the way you THINK AND FEEL about how your day goes. ESSENTIALISM, FOR MOMS I’ve been listening to the book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, by Greg McKeown….
How Do You Talk To Yourself?
So. It’s Sunday morning. Well, it’s not Sunday morning when you’re reading this, but it’s Sunday morning as I’m writing it. I’m in the middle of what might be termed an adult tantrum, fussing and angry because things haven’t gone my way this morning. You see, I had everything planned. For the first time since our…
How Do You Use Smartphones & Social Media as a Postpartum Mom?
I had our first baby in 2002. Smart phones basically didn’t exist. Facebook didn’t exist yet. Texting was still fairly new. Phones were still, pretty much, just phones. POSTPARTUM WITHOUT A SMART PHONE/TABLET In fact, for our first 4 babies, I didn’t have a smart phone or tablet to keep me awake in the postpartum…
Freestyle Friday- “Mama, I’m so glad you’re BACK!” and LINKS
Last week, after an afternoon where I took 30 minutes out to play and be silly with my kiddos on the trampoline, my 8 year old daughter said: “Mama! I’m so glad you’re back…” I smiled, thinking I knew what she meant, but asked to be sure. She answered, “it’s just… you’ve been nursing, and taking care…
The Postpartum In-Between: Searching for Joy While Waiting for a New Normal
Have you been in this place? In between sizes In between hormone swings In between “normals” in your daily routine In between feelings of competence & incompetence In between very little sleep and normal amounts of sleep In between a variety of very STRONG feelings My precious little man is 8 weeks old today, and I’m there. The…
7 Ways I Beat Postpartum Stress
I guess I’m a slow learner. It took me lots of babies and births to finally start figuring it out. Our baby #1 (born in a hospital in Virginia) was in the NICU for a week, I had mastitis for a month, and then we packed up our apartment and moved across the country. WHAAAAT??! After baby #2…