Homeschooling
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moreWhy Be Crazy Enough to Homeschool?
On Friday, March 30 th, 2012Why be crazy enough to homeschool? So a series of questions land in the inbox for a print article on homeschooling, asking how a Christian family makes education...
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morewhen you are looking for His steadying hand
On Thursday, March 29 th, 2012That is what came at the end. At the end of the day, aft...
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more15 Happy Ways to Teach Kids to be Grateful
On Monday, March 26 th, 2012How long do I really have to figure it out? How long do I have to figure out how to live full of joy? So my husband might find himself married to a woman he loves being with. A woman who knows how to laugh at the days to come? So our children have these memories of a mama who smiles easy, listens long, makes jokes and praise and all these good days out of cra...
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moreWhen You’re Feeling Unseen & Unappreciated {Words for Lent}
On Wednesday, March 21 st, 2012It’s hard to know what that is — when it’s a spotlight that heats up a prophet’s fervor. When ardency kindles with a microphone and holiness is this blazing performance for audience and applause. But what is that, that zealous ember in the dark, when a...
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moreWhy Everybody Needs to Make Art Everyday … {7 Keys to Creativity}
On Tuesday, March 20 th, 2012Malakai and his paints sprawl across the table like a bit of the sky run all down. These thousand colors in rain. That’s the way Malakai paints, dabbing in the underbelly of the darks, lining the greys with white light. He pulls this rainbow of colors back tight and he shoots for stars, right there on canvas. Even his hands boldly wear it, shades of the sky. I don’t...
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moreThe Importance of Being the Prodigal Parent
On Thursday, March 15 th, 2012I don’t know who said you couldn’t, but they were dead wrong. You could be death wish over a toilet, a flagrant sinner over a credit card, a Pharisee over a pulpit, and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter a hill of beans. And it’s a hill I’d die on, because that’s exactly why a Carpenter really did: Whoever you are, wherever you’...
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moreA Prayer for Your Home
On Thursday, February 16 th, 2012Bless this nest, Lord, of fragile things, encircling the breakable and broken in grace, in the ever warmth of Your wing, in the sheltering shadow of Your face, us the clinging ones, You our clutch of hope, singing to us the song of home. Resource: Bless Our Nest
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moreThe Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift for a Mother
On Tuesday, February 14 th, 2012When he asked me what I wanted for Valentine’s Day? I’d grinned and said all I wanted was a clean house. I mean, National Geographics wave across the study like a sea. Boys erupt here, lego this lava everywhere. There are dolls, two girl in this blast of boys, and their stream of scissors, and papers, and...
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moreBest Advice for Hard Times
On Friday, February 10 th, 2012It’s what I sang over dishes. Sang on the days when I felt too weary to take another step, clean up another mess, change another diaper. It’s what I sing when the enemy attacks with lies, when I feel alone and scared, when I fear the future and whispers in the shadows. It’s what my mother-in-law, a Dutch farmer’s wife and mother of nine...
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moreHow to Build a House {into a Family}
On Tuesday, February 07 th, 2012They build it with their own hands. They build it in the angling sun and they are loud and happy and they pack in in all the gap...
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moreFor the Hard Days {& real weather forecasts}
On Thursday, February 02 nd, 2012We’re not sure exactly who walked across the boy’s bedroom carpet with green paint on their heel. There is an Everest pile of laundry to be folded in the mudroom and another 3 to be washed and kids are maki...
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moreWhat a Parent Wants to Say Before a Child Leaves
On Thursday, January 26 th, 2012Dear Son — who is called to climb a thousand walls, You have to know how your unfolding from me was a miracle. That’s the miraculous thing about miracles – they really do happen. How is it in this crazy, holy world does a girl-woman bear a boy-child? How does she raise a squalling boy-child into a man? I’ve never been one of those. And this the...
