The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Is it Worth it?

"Mom, I bet you have a LOT of people who read your blog!”, my son commented as we were cleaning up the dinner dishes one evening recently.“Well, I have about fifty subscribers, but usually just about fifteen of those regularly read my posts”, I replied. “Wow, that’s not very many!” A little blunt reality check from my boy, haha! And then his next question kind of caught me a little off guard. "THEN IS IT EVEN WORTH IT?” Being put on the spot, I gave a pretty generic response like, "Well, I enjoy it, so yes." But I have to admit that the question stayed in my mind for a bit after that exchange. Is it worth it? If you blog, you know a lot of time goes into a post, and for ... Read more

Monday Morning Reset

Good morning, friends! Monday mornings offer a fresh week with opportunity to reset in a few areas. Here are a few things I'm refreshing this week! Bible Reading I'm trying a new way of studying the Bible where you read a book of the Bible 20 times through without stopping to study deeper or research along the way. Ordinarily, I really like to camp out in a passage, look things up in my concordance, and take notes, but I think this will be a nice new approach for me, just for a change. The idea is that by the time you've read through a book that many times you are quite familiar with the book (obviously) and with what is in each chapter and have a clearer understanding of the details ... Read more

For My Friends Who Aren’t Moms

Happy Saturday, friends! I'd like to say a little something today to my dear friends who aren't mothers. I am blessed to have several friends who aren't married and don't have children. I say I'm blessed because friendship with these ladies has so much to offer such as their time and their perspective. I was having a lovely tea lunch with two such friends a little over a year ago. I had a lot going on with my children at the time including planning a wedding for my oldest daughter. Because neither of these sweet women are married and neither have children, I'd purposed in my mind ahead of time not to talk constantly about my children's activities because I didn't want to make them feel ... Read more

Creating a Family Identity

Good morning, friends! As a follow-up to my post on the importance of family identity in a child's life, I'd like to share some ideas for creating that identity. I am in no way a trained expert; these are just some ideas that Joel and I have found to work for our family. And although I have given this post a lot of thought, I haven't been able to give it much time in the writing, so it's by no means polished and tidy. I'll just be speaking from the heart as if we're sitting here together over coffee or tea. Back when we went through foster care training, in one of the classes the topic of family identity came up as an important element to carrying your current family through the ... Read more

The Importance of Family Identity in the Life of a Child

As part of my ongoing (yet slow) series on adoption, I'd like to share today some about the idea of FAMILY IDENTITY. And if your children aren’t adopted, this concept applies to your parenting as well! Most of this post is taken from a speech I've given at some events for our adoption agency, so for those of you who may have already heard me speak on this, my apologies. Often when people find out that our son is adopted, a common question my husband and I get asked is, "How long did your adoption take?", meaning the legal process. The paperwork. Well, to answer that question I suppose I would calculate the time from the first day we filed a petition to adopt our son to our day in court ... Read more

Wooden Clothespin Nativity

Hey there! I want to quickly show y'all this sweet clothespin nativity we made last week. Last Friday our dear little neighbor friends and their mama came for "Cookies, Cocoa, and a Craft"! I'd been seeing different versions of these clothespin Nativity crafts all over the internet and came up with my own version. I really wanted to do them with our co-op kids, but it just wasn't going to be doable with the number of kids we had and the short time frame to work. If we'd used wood glue, it wouldn't dry in time to take them home, leaving me only with the option of hot glue which I NEVER use with a crowd of kids. Those things are hot! I remember in one of my elementary art ed classes in ... Read more

Are You Overjoyed or Overwhelmed This Christmas?

I have a confession to make. You ready? Here it is: Christmas isn't always my favorite holiday. Now I promise I'm certainly not a Scrooch, but if I'm honest, for the last few years I've actually felt a little inner dread as December has approached. First, let me say that I LOVE the reason for the season! I desire to celebrate our Savior's birth! Plus I enjoy giving gifts, making memories, and baking alll the cookies. But it's the stress of Christmas being overpacked, over-commercialized, and just down right overwhelming that can suck the joy right out of the season. Earlier this fall I began to pray and prepare my heart for the holidays. I wanted so badly for it to be that time of ... Read more

The Bye-Bye Sisters

I was blessed to have grown up with sisters--an older sister and a younger sister! And let me tell you, it was FUN. And as adults it's still fun! Annnd I now also have the added blessing of sisters-in-law. I know some of you don't have sisters and always wanted one, so let me tell you a story in hopes of encouraging you in that longing. Our family has been part of a group of families we call our life group--a Bible study group that we "do life" with. God put our group together almost twelve years ago, and even as our number has fluctuated with some families moving on and new families joining, our bond has remained strong. Our children have literally grown up together, several now young ... Read more