This little girl…she has a firecracker personality. As an infant, she was big kid trapped in a baby’s body, who refused to conform to baby expectations. She defiantly resisted baby norms of sitting calmly in a stroller, or bouncing and cooing gently on my lap at a restaurant, or quietly Read more…
This article was originally published on Her View From Home. I was at the kitchen sink late in the evening, scrubbing the stoneware baking dish and serving spoons from dinner. Actually, I had been planning on turning my back on that forlorn mess of dinner dishes teetering in the sink. Read more…
I remember the days (not so long ago, in fact) when my kids were all 5 and under and I’d get it in my head that all I wanted to accomplish that day was to clean the house. Okay, maybe “cleaning” was an exaggeration. I mean, I would have even Read more…
Recently on social media I saw a woman’s birthday wishes from her friends and family. Most of the cheerful comments blended into one another. But there was one that stood out. It was a picture of the woman and her young adult daughter. Her daughter had written a simple, but Read more…
Two years ago, our family hosted a foreign exchange student from Germany. Back when I was a college student, my studies had led me to study music in Germany for three years. After that experience, I knew someday I would want to host a German student in my home. So Read more…
We moms are so good at believing in our kids, aren’t we? We see their goodness; their potential. We tell them from the time they are young to believe in their dreams. We say, “you have the world at your fingertips,” and “you can do anything you set your mind Read more…
To you moms and stepmoms and grandmas and care givers and helpers out there. You know who you are. You are one who has been faithfully sacrificing in big and little ways for days…and months…and years. You’ve been giving selflessly of yourself, reaching out to others, even when that has Read more…
When my daughter was nearing the end of her preschool years, I became acutely aware of other stay-at-home moms around me getting ready to send their little ones off to kindergarten. They spoke of the tears they had as they let go of that little hand, watching their child disappear Read more…
It used to be so much easier: If you played with someone on the playground at school, you were instantly best friends. There was no planning required, no awkwardness or wondering if you were acting too pushy. It was just pure friendship-pleasure; the kind that comes from getting lost in Read more…
“I’m just so lonely,” one mom lamented. “My old friends don’t have kids and don’t understand my mom life. My one mom friend just went back to work. It just seems like there is no one who has time for friendship.“ “I’m not cut out for finding friends; I’m too Read more…