Faithful parenting for a faith-filled family

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Find the latest on the intersection of creativity, parenting, and faith.

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How do I get out of Reaction Mode?

I had dreams for my family life, for the kids education, for my own recreation time (which currently clocked in at daily total of zero minutes, zero seconds). I longed to do things like knit, read books with real pages, write for the joy of it. Instead, I was living life of reacting—not to God’s direction—but to people’s momentary expectations, urgent tasks all shoving and bickering to be FIRST on my list. I was desperate to get back to the most important focus of every day...

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A Family Christmas Resource You Won't Want to Miss!

Joy of Advent is a virtual daily devotional reading for children and adults. Each email also has curated music videos and classical (usually) works of art that are truly breathtaking. The Joy of Advent daily readings are structured around the Jesse Tree, in part because the Jesse Tree is a beautiful, ancient tradition, and because it gives us the opportunity to pull a scarlet thread from the tapestry of Scripture.

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Walk Through Lent With JOY!

Those of you who are familiar with Lent and what it’s all about will understand why the title: Walk Through Lent with Joy, is surprising. Lent is a time of penance and repentance, of fasting, of giving up joy … isn’t it?

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Saying Goodbye: Why I Broke Up With Instagram

I stopped posting to Instagram in November of 2020. And in so doing (or, not doing, I suppose), I noticed some things… First, there’s very little “Social” about Social Media.

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Technology Issues

Inspiration and resources for pulling your kids (and yourself) back into the real world.

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My Secret to a Joyful Home? I Quit Making My Kids Happy

If you’re like I was, your kids use more digital media than you’d like. Maybe they’re into video games, binging episodes of Bluey, mindless scrolling through YouTube. If you’ve ever had the thought, “I sure wish he’d do something that doesn’t involve a screen,” then you a. Have a problem b. Are in the perfect position to solve it!

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The Most Insane Parenting Decision I Never Thought I’d Actually Make

I couldn’t pay my kids to go outside. They’d drag out of bed, take bowls of cereal to the family room where they’d watch TV followed by hours of begging for “screen time” while I battled our way through the morning’s schoolwork. Months of this, years of it. We fought this battle day after day until we made a dramatic decision and drastic change.

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The Pandemic Nearly Destroyed My Kids Part 2... One Mother's Horror Story

If you think your kids are safe online, think again. Read one mother’s horror story about online dangers and learn the number one best way to protect your kids short of setting back the clock twenty years. Learn about Gryphon and digital safety.

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The Pandemic Nearly Destroyed My Kids. This Is How I’m Getting Them Back

I thought my 5 year old was watching a harmless YouTube video for kids. What he was really watching absolutely horrified me. The internet is fast becoming one of the scariest places on earth, especially for kids and their parents. Here is the first in a series on protecting children from online dangers.

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All Things Parenting

Inspiration for the journey!

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The Most Insane Parenting Decision I Never Thought I’d Actually Make

I couldn’t pay my kids to go outside. They’d drag out of bed, take bowls of cereal to the family room where they’d watch TV followed by hours of begging for “screen time” while I battled our way through the morning’s schoolwork. Months of this, years of it. We fought this battle day after day until we made a dramatic decision and drastic change.

Read More →

The Pandemic Nearly Destroyed My Kids. This Is How I’m Getting Them Back

I thought my 5 year old was watching a harmless YouTube video for kids. What he was really watching absolutely horrified me. The internet is fast becoming one of the scariest places on earth, especially for kids and their parents. Here is the first in a series on protecting children from online dangers.

Read More →

Homeschooling and Hashimoto's Weirdness

I used to hate read-alouds. My neck would get tense, my throat would feel stiff and sore and my voice would hurt. (And if you say a voice cannot hurt, I assure you, it can.) Here's my story of how diagnosing and treating Hashimoto's changed my life in an unexpected way.

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5 Things to Love About a Community Fundraising Garage Sale

Every year my parish holds a garage sale to raise funds for the VBS and Preschool programs. It has fast become one of my favorite events and helping at every stage, in my mind anyway, absolves me from taking part in the actual VBS. Anyhow, a sale of this size is a huge undertaking. Like crazy huge involving weeks and many, many, many hours from lots of people. But it's so worth it, and apart from the usual reasons about helping others and serving the community, here's why…

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One of THOSE People

I'm becoming one of them. Those mamas with the cell phone poised, snapping low quality digital images. My kids (to post in Facebook), the coffee pot I might buy, so I can compare prices, the kids again. What fun!

I snickered at people like me...

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Plaguing Starbucks Everywhere: Kidism

We've heard of racism and ageism, sexism and more, but over the weekend we experienced yet another "ism." It could be seen as a sort of reverse ageism, I suppose. It's nothing less than: "Kidism."

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