Note from Jess: I wrote this more than a year ago, three months after having baby #9. We’re… barely… creeping out of the postpartum season. Wowzers, things feel overwhelming. I looked around last night and here’s what I noticed: the driveway was a mess. Recycling that hadn’t made it to the bin, toys that were…
5 Thoughts Before I’m 40 + a Life Update
Well, hello there! It’s been a while. Allow me to share some hodge-podgy thoughts I’ve been pondering, as I approach my 40th birthday this month: (1) No matter what choices you make, life contains pain. Fear of pain can not be what rules our decision-making. God doesn’t promise easy roads, comfortable circumstances, good emotions, or…
God is Gooder Than the Hard.
“You are a God of seeing…Truly I have seen Him who looks after me.” ~a pregnant Egyptian slavewoman, in the middle of nowhere… a nobody really… making much of the One who found her in the wilderness, gave her water, and blessed her. When in the wilderness, it makes sense to look at…
VIDEO: Embracing Weakness as a Christian Mother
As I grow in my understanding of the Gospel, and see my own weakness, this was a declaration/confession for me, recorded (and then forgotten, oops!) a little over 2 years ago. I want to be a mom with a Gospel-shaped posture toward life. Recorded: March 2017, after baby #8
VIDEO: Mothering is like FOOD, Not Alcohol
SKIP STRAIGHT TO THE VIDEO BY CLICKING HERE: https://youtu.be/J4_MT8P1ZJc When we work hard at mothering, we often come face-to-face with ourselves. We see our fears and our desire to control everything. We see our own anger. Our selfishness, anxieties, and our weakness and frailty all come to the forefront. It’s embarrassing, isn’t it? Too often,…
VIDEO: Things I DIDN’T EXPECT (as a Large Family Mom)
Like many Americans in the 80s and 90s, (maybe like you?) I grew up with one sibling. So I didn’t really know what to expect as a mom of many children (we have 9 now). Some things we can anticipate: (laundry, food, and stacks of clothes bins!), but what I wanted to talk about in…
Limbo isn’t Limbo
We’ve been in this position before. Almost 17 years ago, Doug & I left our former life in the expensive D.C. area, with our 5-week-old in tow, certain that we wanted for me to be the one to stay home, but with no other plan other than a 1-bedroom apartment that we’d called ahead and reserved….
A Hard Year, the Joy of Baby #9, and the Ideas that Drive Us
Well, it’s been more than a year since I’ve written here. And a lot happened in the last year. WHAT WE DID, BETWEEN JUNE 2017 & JUNE 2018: Through our extended family, we’ve experienced some life-changing pain– the death of two grandparents, and my brother went through an unexpected divorce. They married the same year we did, and though we…
What’s Right in Front of Me: A Year of Personal Recalibration
For those long-time readers or people who know us in real life, this autobiographical background may be review, but it’ll help explain what follows: 12 years or so ago, for many reasons, we moved abroad. Doug managed a coffee roasting business, and I stayed home with our ever-expanding family. We each learned languages and made local…
Sex: Blazing Fire, Mighty River, Walled Garden
Analogies can be a way for us to understand ideas or experiences better. Here are 3 good analogies I’ve heard used to describe sex, and why I find them helpful: #1- SEX IS LIKE A BLAZING FIRE. The weekend-getaway we do with our 12-year-olds is called “Passport2Purity.” That is the first place I remember hearing…