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Instagram Mom, Please Stop
I came across this beautiful photo (of which I've cropped) on my Instagram feed last night. It's beautiful. Everything is propped and proportioned so meticulously. The colors are beautiful and the caption is great. But it broke my heart. Actually, the beautiful baby...
Confessions of an Overcomer
"This place would have been a mess for me when I was in college," I told my son and his dad after eating in his college cafeteria. It's one of these free range cafeterias most universities have now. Every food imaginable is available. You can eat anything you want, as...
Middle Schoolers and Social Media
Social media and the internet are part of every child’s world. It’s common for middle schoolers to have access to harmful online content by the touch of a finger during any part of the day. Each year middle school students I work with have problems with peers over...
Releasing Boys to Be Men
It's been a full week. To the naked eye it seems like things are normal but as I listened to my heart I realized I am holding on to my emotional strings tightly, trying to hold things together. Big transitions are happening at our house this summer and I can't keep...
4 Steps for Life Transitions
My family has experienced a lot of change lately. Kids moving home, kids moving away, new relationships, new jobs, new roles. Life in transition. Transitions occur between what was, and what’s going to be. It’s a natural part of change, but it feels weird, restless,...
5 Lessons When Your Child Answers God’s Call
In a few days, my husband and I will be driving to Monterrey, Mexico, with my daughter. She's serving there for at least a year as a full time missionary. Those of who who have been following the blog for a while or who have heard my testimony know how much God has...
Pokemon Go: Things Christian Parents Should Consider
If you've been on social media or watched the news at all this week, you know about the new game Pokemon Go. It's a virtual reality game on smart phones designed to get gamers out of the house and physically moving. By downloading the app, you use the location devices...
5 Ways to Help Your Middle Schooler – Parenting by Brenda Yoder
School is coming up soon, whether you are ready or not. If you have an upcoming middle schooler, both you and your child naturally have fears as a new school year starts. Common fears include: Starting at a new middle school where many elementary schools come...
5 Tips When You Feel Miserably Insecure
I walked across the shore of Lake Michigan. It was beautiful. As I approached a curve in the coastline, the only way to avoid water was to walk on broken cement and rocks hugging the landscape. I was alone, with a torn ACL in one knee, and was insecure about my...
4 Ways to Deal With Hurt
Hurt is something we’ve all experienced. My first memory of being physically hurt was falling and cutting my lip on a metal toolbox when I was three. I still have the scar. My first memory of being emotionally hurt was when, as the youngest, an older sibling called me...
5 Helps When You Live in the Land of Littles
I'm getting a Little today. If you're not sure what that is, other than the strange TV characters with tails, then you're not raising Littles. If you're a hip G-ma, then you know what these are. They are little people. Children. Kids. Kiddos. Those humans that are...
Why Love is a Dirty Word to Me
I shy away from the moral and cultural religious wars of today. I cautiously disengage from new age, occultic, and secular beliefs that have infiltrated the church, and those that are also on the legalistic, dogmatic side. There's so much rhetoric, it's easier at...