How do you help a child who often falls apart? Here are several ways a mom can encourage her child to pull it together and grow strong. Any advice for this weary mom? She was tired, discouraged, and a little disappointed—wondering if she was doing it right. My friend went on to explain. Her 12-year-old daughter had been helping with the dishes since she was three. But as their family grew, she now had to handwash a few extra dishes, mainly pots, and pans. Not too difficult of a chore. Except that she kept forgetting. And she had to be called back to the sink to do them. And 100% of the time ..read more

Your marriage speaks volumes to those around you who are watching. What you do and don’t do sends a powerful message. Our flight attendant was probably trying her best, but you couldn’t miss the edge in her voice as she made her way down the narrow airplane aisle, rattling off instructions we’d all heard countless times before. Not that I blamed her for her monotone. It was a night flight, and I think nearly every one of us felt done right from the start. So many tired people squeezed into such a small space, most of us just wanting to get home and get to bed. My heart went out to her, so I d ..read more

Jump into the season with this list of amazingly illustrated picture books about spring. Allow the magic of spring to fill your heart and imagination! When I was a girl, I knew spring was on the way by the green shoots of daffodils and hyacinths popping up in our flowerbeds. We rarely had snow even in the winter months, but the faithful bulbs were a welcome sight amid the seemingly never-ending April showers.  Now that I live where snow can linger into March and come again as a bit of an April Fool’s, the signs of spring aren’t always quite so obvious. But when my children’s windowsills ..read more

What’s so great about being a mother of boys? Here are 15 wonderful things to love about having a son…and it’s not exhaustive! Got boys? Yeah, me too. Four of them. Our oldest son and then three younger boys. And I can’t believe no one told me how wonderful being a mom of boys could be. Not that I don’t love my girls—you know I do! But boys? They’re some of the best. And if you ever spent much time around them….you would certainly understand why. So I began a list of a few things that I love about having boys. At first, it was going to be “10 Things That I Love,” but then I had such a hard ti ..read more

Good hospitality may not be your forte, but it’s in the simplest ways that we can help our guests feel welcomed and cared for. It’s hard to believe someone could simply “fall” into a guesthouse. But that’s really how it happened. And it started last summer when we moved out of our family home. We packed up the house we’d lived in for 17 years – where we’d raised our eight children – and although we only moved 17 miles from our old homestead? It sure felt like a big deal. There were many reasons for the change, but our top priority was finding a single-level home where our youngest daughter co ..read more

Our children need to know that Jesus loves them. Knowing Jesus’ love can help our children be brave and strong no matter what may come along. If only you could’ve seen the look on her face. Her smile beaming like a ray of sunshine filled the room. And to think only days before, her eyes were nothing but gloomy clouds at the thought of her sister getting married. Oh, she liked the guy who would be her brother-in-law. It wasn’t him to whom she objected. It’s mainly because this girl does not like change, and this felt like the most significant family change she’d ever known. No matter how many ..read more

A snowy view is the perfect ambiance when curled up with a good book. If you’re looking for a great stack of cozy winter reading, stock up on these titles! Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two types of people in winter. There are those who embrace the cold and snow as a way to add interest and change up their outdoor activities. And then there are those who love how the cold and snow emphasizes the coziness of their homes and adds an extra level of enjoyment to the activities they’re pursuing inside. Maybe this juxtaposition is more evident here in the mountains of C ..read more

Are you a binge eater? A secret eater? An emotional eater? Are you a sugar addict? Draw close to the one who can satisfy your craving more deeply. Those nine little words changed the trajectory of my life when I posted them online in 2014. Innocently, I invited people on my Facebook page to join me for a 40-Day Sugar Fast. I wasn’t simply having a problem with sugar. I told my friends; I was having problems staying kind and consistent with my closest family members too. Sure I was experiencing physical problems like weight gain, but I was also grumpy, tired, and impatient with my kids and my ..read more

How can you train yourself to do what you know is best? How can you discipline your wandering heart in choosing God over your to-do list? As a child, I hated the word “discipline”. But as an adult halfway through my thirties, I have come to appreciate the word and the action it represents.  If it was not for discipline, my house would be a complete mess, I would eat every carton of ice cream I could get my hands on, my checkbook would never get balanced, and I would be a wimpy Christian. Spiritual Discipline While there are mornings when I can’t wait for the alarm to ring, waking me for ..read more

You can build and make your marriage better by having a little intentionality and focusing on some goals specific to your marriage needs! I’ll confess I inwardly balked when my husband first suggested it. Take the day off? How could we afford to take an entire day off when there was still so much to do? But then I cringed when I heard our 16-year-old son laugh. “This usually means, ‘Let’s take a day off so we can really get some work done.’” Ouch.  So no. Not this time. This time, we were going all-out irresponsible and actually taking Friday off—off work, off house projects, even o ..read more