• 09.23.2007 Library Ordeal
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    I was kicked out of the public library last Thursday. Seriously…who gets kicked out of the library? The experience was so traumatic it has taken me several days to process. I had conserved just enough energy to take my three boys to the library following a morning of homeschooling. We had overdue books to return and books needing to be checked out for next week’s studies. It had been a trying week, and my nerves were a little frail already. This was a run in, run out kind of trip. Everybody knows that the library is a quiet place…everyone, I guess, but my one year old, Judah. I don’t know if children can sense a baby-unfriendly environment, but upon arrival, Judah immediately started fussing. The fussing turned into crying; the crying became screeching. I dodged into the restroom hoping to console this restless child, and perhaps convince him of his […]

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  • 09.13.2007 Guess How Much I Love You?
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    Don’t you love it when your kids say, “I love you.” Sometimes I want to record it and play it back to myself repeatedly when they are acting up! My kids enjoy the book, “Guess How Much I Love You.” The author uses everyday words and experiences to describe the love we feel for one another as parent and child, which often feels too vast for words. The little bunny in the story says, “I love you all the way to the moon,” signifying the furthest distance the child could possibly imagine. The big rabbit in the story then counters, “I love you all the way to the moon, and back.” Caleb, my eldest, soon started making up his own proclamations of love: “Mama, I love you all the way to Mars, and then to Sun and back.” “Wow, Caleb,” I’d say, “you love me that much? Well, I love […]

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  • 09.06.2007 Music To My Ears
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    Silence is golden. It’s the priciest commodity around our house at least…especially when the house goes for a drive in the car. I’m sure you know how it is–everyone sounding out all at the same time in an enclosed space. One child persistently asking to listen to his favorite song, roll down the windows, and the all-too familiar “where are we going?” in continuum like a strings section playing Vivaldi. Then there’s the steady, bass-like barrage of time-consuming questions from the older one: “Mama, where does the horizon end? Where does the freeway begin? When will we go visit China? Why can’t we go right now? What’s 2,376+70,231?” While these two are relentlessly keeping pace with one another, the one-yr. old chimes in with unintelligible schreeches and objections like an over zealous percussionist. While interchangeably attending to each of the children’s questions or needs, my husband and I attempt to […]

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  • 08.30.2007 Phonics, Distractions, and the Word of God
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    My eldest has a way with words. He says the funniest things…that seem so sophisticated for a five year old. He is an avid inquisitor and investigator of all things unexplainable, making him a studious but easily distracted homeschooler. The rule studied today in phonics was: “if there are two consonants preceding a suffix, the vowel is short; if there is one consonant preceding the suffix, the vowel is long.” It’s fascinating for me, as English is my second language and I really never learned any rules for English at all. Caleb is a good kid. He does what I ask, and for the most part, has a great attitude doing it. But phonics can be challenging–row upon row of words to practice reading followed by sentences to use them in. I’m the one that gets impatient at times: “rid-ding, not ri-ding.” It’s not enough for Caleb to just know […]

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  • 08.27.2007 Devotion and Discipline
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    My kids love family devotions. That is the time every morning after breakfast, when the family piles onto the couch with our Bibles and start our day praying and reading together. We usually begin with a story out of Liam’s Read And Learn Bible. Then we read out of Caleb’s The One Year Bible for Children (Tyndale Kids) and also a page out of A Faith to Grow On, which teaches through the fundamentals of our faith.  We talk about all that we have read, and usually the kids ask to sing a song. (And if you haven’t experienced what that is like, go to my video pod below, and click on “The Lord’s Prayer.”) Growing up family devotions often became a forced and unknowingly legalistic ritual. We could not miss a single day without feeling guilt and concern over our spiritual welfare. My parents were young Christians and did […]

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