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When Your Child Struggles
I hate watching my kids struggle. I hate watching the tears roll down their faces. I hate watching them put everything they have into doing something well, and it’s still not enough. But sometimes...
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What You Should Expect from Your Kids
Expectations. They’re the root cause of so many frustrations in life. We expect one thing, and we get another. And we’re disappointed. How many times have you sat at a sporting event for one of your...
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Raising an Introvert in an Extrovert World
My older daughter is an introvert in the truest sense of the word. She draws her energy from being alone. Interacting with other people is an incredible drain on her energy. And the thought of having...
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What Defines Your Child?
If you’ve read this blog for very long at all, you know we’re a sports family. Both girls are heavily involved in sports, and they take up a big chunk of our time and budget. I love that my girls play...
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Beautiful Together
Her sweet little hand grabbed tightly onto mine as she brought a piece of paper right up to my nose and said proudly, “This is me and you, Mommy. You are making me all better.” “From what?” I asked....
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Why We Shouldn’t Fight Our Kids’ Battles for Them
A couple of weeks ago, my older daughter chose to have a very difficult conversation with her soccer coach. She was struggling on the field, and she felt like if her coach made a few changes in the...
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The Teen Years Don’t Look Like I Thought They Would
The other day, a boy told my older daughter that she’s beautiful. I don’t disagree with the sentiment, and I like the boy. But when I heard that, I looked at my daughter, and I wondered where the days...
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Living Summer Day by Day
My kids got out of school last Thursday, and we left town for the Indy 500 that afternoon. We got home yesterday, which makes this the first real day of summer my kids have had. My younger daughter is...
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When Parenting Just Stinks
Sometimes, being the parent just stinks. Watching your kids walk through difficult circumstances, watching their hearts break, watching their dreams shatter — none of that is fun. My mom once told me...
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A Birthday Prayer for My 14-Year-Old
The child who made me a mom turns 14 today. I’m not really sure where the years have gone. It’s hard to believe the amazing young lady standing in front of me today is the same pixie-haired, wide-eyed...
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A Change in Perspective
We’ve had a rough start to summer around here. My older daughter spent the first week of June in the hospital with meningitis. It was a long, scary week that fortunately for us ended with a healthy...
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The Measure of Success
I turn 41 today. And to be honest, I’m having a really hard time with this birthday. I didn’t have any trouble at all with turning 40 last year. I’ve always had the opinion that age is just a number....
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Lessons from Teenagers on Friendship
Most of you know that earlier this month, my older daughter spent four days in the hospital with meningitis. I blogged about the change in perspective it brought here. While we were in the hospital,...
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These Moments are Precious
For the second time in six weeks, I sat in a doctor’s office with my older daughter and had a doctor look at me and say something like “If we don’t treat this correctly, it could kill her.” When you...
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Parenting Takes Faith
My older daughter leaves tomorrow morning to spend a week in Ecuador on a mission trip. I’m excited for her to go, but this trip that we’ve been planning for nine months has suddenly become a huge...
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Don’t Let Fear Rule Your Parenting
A little over 12 years ago, I sat in a doctor’s office and was presented with the fact that the baby I was holding in my arms shouldn’t be here. I was told that 99% of babies with her particular...
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Don’t Let Fear Rule Your Parenting — The Rest of the Story
A little over a week ago, I wrote this post about not letting fear rule your parenting. The next day, I got a phone call from my 14-year-old daughter in Ecuador saying her throat felt like it did when...
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Jesus, Please…
Life around here has been a bit of doozy. You know that tummy-twirling ride where you spin and spin and spin and the floor drops out? Yeah, that’s pretty much our summer. And the grand total of my...
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Why Target Taking Down a Few Signs Doesn’t Bother Me
I wasn’t going to write this post. I usually like to stay away from controversial subjects in this space. But I found that after thinking about it for a while and praying about it that I feel the need...
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When Your Child is Drowning in the Tough Stuff
My 14-year-old daughter has taken a beating in the past few weeks. She’s been sick for so long that she doesn’t remember what it feels like to feel well (she had her tonsils taken out yesterday, so...
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