Gaining a heart of wisdom
Motherhood, for me, started out like a tightrope walk. To keep my balance and maintain my place on the tightly stretched wire, I read all the books, analyzed all the angles, second guessed all the decisions, and the only thing that saved my sanity is that Google had not been invented yet. I'm still in… Continue reading Motherhood: Learning the Ropes of Joy
The front-and-center project that's consuming time and thought these days is a parenting workshop that my husband and I will be teaching in March. Preparation includes reviewing everything we've read about parenting in the past couple of years, remembering everything we've stumbled upon in the past two decades in the trenches of parenting, discussing all… Continue reading Parenting After the Fall
Teach Us to Pray guides Scripture-centered family worship throughout the year.
Finally, about ten years ago, the light began to dawn, and you can't imagine how disappointed I was. I realized that parenting is not a cause and effect proposition. It's not a vending machine in which I insert my actions (seizing teachable moments, training in character, consistency in discipline) and then am rewarded by equal and… Continue reading Grateful Parents: Grateful Kids
"You need to stop reading those magazines." Once again, the patient husband had come home from work to find me in a puddle of panic over some detail in the life of our firstborn. Some days I was convinced that I was a failure as a mother; other days I was sure that I had… Continue reading Enjoy Your Preschooler
Stop signs and flashing lights preside over busy intersections. Commas and semi-colons mark the collision of clauses. Wouldn't it be lovely if there were some ready marker or built-in gulp of air at the major crossroads of life? Kelly Chripczuk began living the transition from ten years in full-time mothering mode when her youngest children went… Continue reading Chickens at the Crossroads
Little people find words first for the people and the things that are most important to them. As one of the "named people" in my grandson's life, I love to read books to him that include pictures of the sun, moon, and stars, because he responds by pointing to them, naming them over and over,… Continue reading The Heavens Declare!
“These bean plants are a mess,” I muttered. “But, wow . . . lots of beans.” Our eleven rows of Providers (that’s the variety of green bean we always plant) had lived up to their name, but after four pickings, the plants looked tired, ransacked, plundered. They looked like us. I smile when I say… Continue reading Parenting Past the Mid-Point: More Thoughts from the Garden
A perfect Saturday: a hand-holding walk with a patient man, an antique store, a cafe, and, finally, a beach with two lawn chairs. In the company of the Atlantic Ocean, the summer sun, and my snoozing husband, I was introduced to a new poet -- Marjorie Maddox -- in my meandering read through True, False, None… Continue reading Wherever the Poem Takes Us
My grown-up boys have a particular smile that I see whenever they come to the house, and I start hauling food out of the refrigerator. It's a combination of, "She really can't help herself, can she?" and "Well . . . I might be persuaded to eat a sandwich." Even though I can't keep a… Continue reading “Mother” Is a Verb, Too
Living Our Days 