Some days as a stay-at-home mom can be more challenging than others. Take the day that Tyler insisted that he was a dog, for example. I’m sure my neighbors think I’m a tad strange as I go out to call my children in for lunch: “Here, puppy, puppy, puppy. Puppies, it is time to eat.”…
Life as a mother of young children can never be dull. Children are always saying or doing something funny or curious. A few months ago, my sons toured the Brodhead Wastewater Treatment Facility on a school trip. Afterward, they were preoccupied with building their own plant. They got quite elaborate with all their buckets and…
“Mama, come see my invention!” is a normal cry at our house. So is, “Hey, Mama, come quick and see this bug I caught!” Yes, it is a rare treat to be able to live with an inventor and a bug scientist. What occupations are your children currently practicing? Children can be very creative, can’t…
“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Whoa, I need sunglasses. Your teeth are really clean,” said the dental hygienist to my four-year-old son, Tyler. Tyler’s smile was broad as he looked over to me for approval and then back at the dental hygienist. She handed him a mirror, and he studied his pearly white…
“What do baby birds do in their nest? How do baby birds play? Does the Mommy bird sit on the babies at night? What do birds eat? What do turtles eat? Do bears eat people? Do bears live around here? Is the UPS man going to bring me my book?” Once Tyler gets started, he…
This year, we decided to join a CSA, a community sustained agriculture, group. We paid ahead and agreed to pick up our allotted produce once each week, beginning in early June. The produce was organic and came straight from the farm that day. We’ve had herbs such as cilantro, dill, basil, and garlic; fruit such…
Often someone beautiful is trapped in a plain body or in a disabled body, and people are too busy to notice. Sometimes someone ugly is locked in a beautiful body, and the person causes pain wherever he or she goes. Karen Kingsbury’s Unlocked is an inspirational story about how people caught in different prisons can…
Risking Love by Brenda Anderson is a sweet Christian romance that I highly recommend. From the beginning, I wanted to know how Lissa was going to grow as a character. She was such a planner, and watching her wrestle with living outside her agenda for life was suspenseful in its own way. Perhaps I relate…
In August, my husband, Pat, started talking about an abandoned kitten that turned up at his work, a food manufacturing facility. As a manager, he was concerned about cat hair getting into the workplace because employees were feeding the starving feline during their breaks. She visited at night and was friendly, even purring and rubbing…
In 2015, my eldest son, Nathanial, decided to buy a giant sequoia tree and some redwood seeds. He claimed that some had survived in Wisconsin. He was pumped. The little twig was named Steve after Steve the hedge in the movie, Over the Hedge. Unfortunately, the instructions were lost, some bad advice followed, and poor…