It was a hot May day in Georgia. We had just returned from my Grandma's memorial service and were spending time with extended family at my parents house. My brother and husband both went to the boat dock with six of the kids and they...
Well, I lied. I said I wasn’t the practical one, but I am back with real-world ideas for gluten free snacks for your children all while staying in your grocery budget. (Which is a pipe-dream for us most days, but we are getting there. Baby steps,...
Flying the friendly skies with all our children is a humorous experience. Picture this: four kids all pulling suitcases and one of my daughters balancing her car seat on her head. We held my 21 month old boy by a leash on his backpack without...
Nearly four years ago, in the midst of a very dark season, I threw open my Bible at the beginning, exclaiming angrily, “I’m going to know you, God, whether you like it or not.” I didn’t know it at the time, but my misguided anger would...
It was a Thursday when Grandma died. I awoke to my husband's kind hand touching me in the darkness. "Laura, your Grandma is in Heaven," he said. We were to fly to Georgia on Friday to get one last visit with her and say our...
The last two years I have gone to the "Great Homeschool Convention" in Cincinnatti (they have 5 conferences around the country). The first year, an ad came up in my Facebook feed that one of my favorite authors Ann Voskamp was going to be there,...
So here is the thing about us moms. Aren’t we all just trying to make the broken things a bit more beautiful? My dear friend wrote a sprawling, honest manifesto last year on motherhood. One of my favorites. “Filling someone’s heart and loving another as they journey...
Mothers, you are a gift that your children open every day. When the sun rises, or before, and they come running to you with their padded feet, special blanket in arms, saying "Mama, up!" and you open your arms and draw them in to your heart...
I’m raising a nudist, shoeless, headed-toward-a-mullet-and-dreadlocks hooligan. Lately, it seems as if everything, big or small, can ignite a battle of wills. At the end of the day, the unpredictability of toddler whims and toddler timetables leaves me feeling like I’ve been negotiating a U.N....
A few years ago I went through a difficult season where I felt really lost and couldn’t seem to find any breakthrough. There were a number of things I did during that time… Sought counseling, read books, prayed, exercised, ate right, reached out to friends, etc, etc, etc. We've all been there,...