Author: Tashelga Parrott Recently, my husband and I were discussing our children. What to do? Who to coddle? And who’s getting tough love? When it comes to blending a family, unless a woman conceives by Immaculate Conception, there is neither a perfect nor an ideal way that words around the topic can be spoken. The [...]
Author: Linda Wright Spaghetti sauce is a specialty of mine. I start with tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes whipped up in my vita-mix super blender with an onion, garlic cloves, and herbs from my garden. Secretly, I add a few sliced carrots for added nutrition. The vita-mix liquefies it all! Simmer the liquid in [...]
Author: Susan Arico One of the hardest parts of parenting is figuring out the best way to deal with tough issues we encounter with our children. How should we respond – with empathy, correction, further questioning, or something else? It’s not always clear-cut, and what works with one child in one season may fail completely [...]
Author: Tricia Hodges Being a parent is hard. We face the task of raising little ones, pre-teens or young adults – or all three in my case! We search for answers to this problem or that. We long for encouragement in our parenting. But sometimes we can lean so far trying to fix. We can [...]
Author: Steve Hodges I grew up in Southern California. One of our favorite summer Saturday outings as a family was to visit one of the many large regional parks in Orange County. One Saturday morning while I was in middle school, my dad called all of us children together and asked a question: “Would you [...]
Author: Jeanine Cook As the holiday season comes upon us I am considering and praying through all that I would like to do, should do and what should wait. I want to have the correct priorities as the busyness begins. I know that it is a battle I often lose on small but important fronts. [...]
Author: Kim Ashbaugh I once asked my eldest, who had recently graduated from high school, what her favorite childhood memory was. She could not recall any particular memory, but said “when you and Daddy played with me.” Oh, the importance of individual time! It cannot be neglected in parenting, though many daily tasks try to take [...]
Author: Melanie Robbins Have you ever had a time in your life where you clearly see God’s hand – see how He has been working and know with certainty where He is leading you and your family? This is such a time in my life! Last time I wrote about a big change in our [...]
Author: Susan Ottmer I will admit, I have a perfection problem. My husband discovered my secret 15 years ago, when, several weeks before our wedding, I said “I just want everything to be perfect!” His thoughts… ”Oh no, here we go!” My wedding day was absolutely wonderful, you might even say, “picture perfect”, but it wasn’t [...]
Author: Steve Hodges A four-year-old boy sits, waiting patiently. Ten minutes pass. Twenty. Thirty. Still he sits, watching. He leans in toward me periodically, wanting to get a close up view of what I’m doing. A boy’s construction truck playthings are not made like they were when I was a child. Back then they were [...]