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The Gift of Contentment
Two conversations this week had a striking theme. Question to forty-something co-workers, "What do you want for Christmas?" Answer, "Nothing, really, just time with my family. I don't really need or want anything." I heard this in two different settings. There are...
Relationship Survival During the Holidays
I received this poem in a Christmas letter from a high school friend in 2005. I've kept it all these years. When I was teaching, it was in my classroom. Now, it's a wall hanging in my counseling office. It makes me strong. These truths are essential for the holidays...
Father Hunger Book Review: Why God Calls Men to Love and Lead Their Families
I work with many young men and women who have absentee fathers. Some don't know who their fathers are. Some have fathers in jail. Some have fathers who prioritize their "new" family. And some have fathers who just don't come around. The following book review...
Just. No. Words.
I've got to be honest. In light of recent national events, I sit down to write asking, "Why? Why should I continue putting even more words in social media when there's already too much? Too many words, too much noise filled with anger, agendas, ignorance, and...
Quiet
Tomorrow, in schools across America, children and teachers will enter schools and classrooms different people. Parents will walk through familiar routines with interrupting thoughts. "They lost their lives in a school that could be any school, in a quiet town full of...
Please, Stop
I'm a teacher. a counselor in an elementary school. a parent. Please stop. Kids in classrooms witness violence in their homes. Please stop. Kids play shooting games for entertainment. Please stop. Kids have anger they don't know what to do with. Please stop. Kids...
Effective Parenting & the Art Of Making Jello
When I make Jello, I feel like Betty Crocker. That’s an oxymoron, but let me explain. Making Jello is probably the simplest food to make. But it requires patience and forethought. When making Jello, it takes time to "set up." Even the "quick method" doesn't yield...
Character Development
This past week, as our youngest celebrated a milestone birthday. But that wasn't the real milestone. The real marker is all the changes in our life over the last 13 years. Life-changing changes shadowed by God's character of goodness. When I gave birth to my...
How To’s for Releasing a Child
Today is one of the lasts of the lasts. I celebrated my youngest' thirteenth birthday. One of the milestones of lasts. The last child to leave childhood. The last child to become a teenager. I was teaching child development and parenting to freshman girls when this...
Food, Hunger, and God
Satisfy: to gratify the expectations, needs or desires of. To fulfill a need or desire. To free from doubt or question. As a recovered anorexic and bulimic, I pay attention to my body in order to live a healthy lifestyle without struggle or relapse. I take care of my...
Christmas Survival Tools
I have to admit, my hometown is beautiful at Christmas. Twinkling lights and picturesque decorations. It mirrors the image most of us have of Christmas. A season of great expectations. But expectations can be disappointing. How many children each year are...
Why I’m not a Salesman (God’s Gift in Disguise)
Attempting to blog during the Holidays is like putting another ad flyer in an already stuffed newspaper. Lots of good ideas, but there's too much out there already. Now you know why I'm not a salesman. In the busyness and too muchness of everything this season, Life...