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Love is a Verb
Love is a verb. It doesn’t always resemble the curated love stories and the filtered and posed images we are bombarded with daily. It’s more than one dimensional. It’s a complicated action that takes on many forms. Sometimes love is gentle and meek. It looks like the way you help scoop up the pieces of daughter after her first real break up and remind her of her strength even thoughthe enemy is whispering lies of her weakness to her. It’s when you finally just give in and say, “I am sorry,” because you’re BOTH in the wrong, and being right never feels as good as it does when you’re enveloped…
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An Open Letter to my Teenage Son on his 18th Birthday
Today my oldest child turns 18. Legally an adult. I still can’t grasp that fact. It doesn’t seem like the sand in his childhood should be shedding its last grains into the bottom glass. I am a mix of so many emotions. There is the sigh of relief that the ball is fully in his court now and the pang of anxiety surrounding that same realization. He will now (for the most part) will be sorting out his mistakes on his own using his still green life lenses. There is the vain longing for all the spent time back again. To fix my own mistakes and re-live all the beauty…
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Homeschooling, Public Education and Fear
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Homeschooling, Public Education and Fear
When I shared on my Instagram last week about my son’s first day of public school, I got a few concerned messages from fellow homeschoolers and public-schoolers alike. Now before you go picturing my son as a little boy with a book bag that is bigger than he is and his first day of school consisting of paste and crayons… He has facial hair and a drivers license. He stands several inches above me and will be 17 in a few short months. He is entering public school as a junior. Still, the concern came from followers of mine who knew all those facts. I DO understand their side of…
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An Open Letter to my Teenage Son on his 18th Birthday
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When being a parent sucks…
When being a parent sucks it totally sucks. I’m not talking about the physical demand of toddler-hood or the sleepless nights of infancy. That stuff is a cakewalk comparatively. It’s watching your older kids find their footing in the world when they choose a hard path. When they stumble but don’t want your help or input. When your council, no matter how high-caliper your experience, is rejected and thrown out like trash. When you remember how ignorant YOUR own parents seemed in your teenage-mind and you KNOW that the rebellious streak that ran through you flows fresh through a child you bore. The part that takes great faith is trusting…
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How We Use Bedtime Charts in Our Large Family
I am so happy to share with you how we handle bedtime in regards to personal responsibility in today’s video and I even have a free printable for you HERE!
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Weekly Wrap Up: August 5-11, 2018
I have slacked like crazy with the weekend wrap up! It’s been a month and while the itch to do a MONTHLY update it there I think I would overwhelm both of us. New Videos: Did you catch this week’s videos? In Monday’s video I hit you with a little change to my YouTube channel. Most of you know that I am a homeschooling mom and the school year is the time I responsibility plate is heaping. Just to balance life, there will be a slight change to my YouTube routine. Check it out for the details: Wednesday was my weekly DITL video. We had a day trip with one…
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Cell Phones and Teens | Rules and Hacks for Moms
I have been asked so many times what about our rules with cell phones for our children. I will be the first to tell you that we have in no way figured it out, and I have made many mistakes along the way. That said, I would also be happy to share what we are doing with our family to make this part of our lives a bit more manageable. First of all, we don’t allow our kids to have phones or personal devices at a young age. We made the mistake of handing personal devices out at too young of an age and we regretted it. Now our go-to…
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The Right-Now
Today your curly head lay against my chest as you fell into your afternoon nap. As a mom of 8, I know how fleeting these days are. I know how bittersweet the quickness of it all is, but the years have also whispered wisdom into my heart: the wisdom that screams at me to soak in this short season. Because to mourn for the moment before or to reach for the moment to come robs me of the right now. If I keep that repertoire, stolen moments become all there ever is, and I have hoodwinked myself out of the beauty of my life. I have willfully traded it for…
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Dear 8th Child,
Dear 8th Child, One day you’ll be bigger than me. Your ideas and thoughts will be as wild and free as the wind, unique to only you. You’ll have sprouted wings and you’ll be standing on the edge of our little nest looking in awe at the big world that surrounds you. It will be exciting and terrifying and electric all at the same time. You’ll swing, at times, like a pendulum between boy and man. Between rowdy and responsible. You’ll have times where we, your parents, will be your soft spot to land and other times where the lies that we are against you will seem surprisingly true in…
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I Have a 15 Year Old!?
You GUYS, I feel WAY too young for this blog post! My oldest turned FIFTEEN last week! Wasn’t I 15 just a few days ago? We had an awesome day with him! While my amazing momma watched our youngest 6 kids we took AJ and Maddie out for lunch at a local restaurant my dad built. After we shopped around for a ukulele and visited the electric piano that he wants to save for at another music shop. We hit up the mall to look for Twenty One Pilots gear and even grabbed a Starbucks before returning home to cake and ice cream with my parents and inlaws! I am…
