Results tagged “family”
Well-Rested (11/16/09 - 9 Comments)
A few days ago I was talking to some friends about fatigue. It is a popular topic when you're in the stage of life that includes young children (though, from what I've overheard, it also seems to be a popular topic as you begin to hit old age). I got to thinking about the topic and found something I had written about fatigue a couple of years ago, apparently after a particularly tough night. *****...
Got To's and Get To's (09/24/09 - 22 Comments)
A couple of days ago I sat down with Aileen and a blank piece of paper. On the top of the paper I wrote, "If we were better parents to our children we would..." and then, between the two of us, we began to jot down ideas. We thought of some of the things we would do if we were to be the kind of parents we really want to be--parents who love our children,...
Mom Shovels the Drive (03/02/09 - 51 Comments)
Mom always shovels the driveway. It's a phenomenon I've noticed time and again. We live in a neighborhood that has a lot of single moms. I suppose the statistics dictate that most neighborhoods have more than their fair share of single moms. But ours seems to have an unusual amount. I think it is related to the housing prices here. We live in (quite literally) the most affordable housing in town. It is one of...
Get Outta My Face! (02/03/09 - 10 Comments)
I have spent the last thirteen years of my life trying to forget my teenage years. It's not that these years were really so bad and it's not like I went through a period of utter rebellion as do so many teens (for which I give thanks to God). It's more that I had little joy in these years and felt that I was mostly just putting in time as I waited to grow up....
Book Review - The Little Boy Down the Road (01/14/09 - 7 Comments)
I don't often post reviews two days in a row, but today you'll need to bear with me. I was somewhat surprised but rather pleased to find The Little Boy Down the Road in my mailbox one morning. It was the first I had heard of the book. I was drawn to it by its pastoral cover and its simple premise--"Short Stories and Essays on the Beauty of Family Life." As the subtitle says, this...
Board (Not Boring) Games (12/07/08 - 87 Comments)
In recent months my family has been discovering (for the kids) or rediscovering (for Aileen and me) a love of board games. We've had great fun playing games like Ticket to Ride (an amazing game for the whole family), Lost Cities (a fast and fun strategy game for two adults or older children), and a few of the classics. In the next day or two Aileen and I are going to tackle Carcassonne, by all...
Child of Divorce, Child of God (09/16/08 - 3 Comments)
I grew up in a stable family and in a church community of stable families. Divorce was almost unknown among the Christians I knew as a child. But as I looked to friends and family outside the bounds of the church I saw many broken homes. My parents let us see these families and I think they wanted us to see them as an object lesson in the reality that God is the one who...
Who Do You Love More? (08/20/08 - 79 Comments)
I made my children cry. A short time ago my son and daughter came to me and Abby, representing both of them, I suppose, asked the kind of question little girls ask. It was a question they must have been thinking, or perhaps arguing, about. “Daddy, who do you love more, Mommy or us?” I thought for just a moment and told them the truth. They cried. The fact is, I love their mother more...
Out of the Park (08/15/08 - 20 Comments)
On Wednesday evening I was coaching first base when, from behind me, I overheard a chat between two of the parents from other team. “That first baseman was so nice. He would tell our guys, ‘Nice hit!’ even though he is on the other team. What a nice boy!” With just a bit of pride I smiled, knowing they weren’t talking about just any first baseman; they were talking about my boy. It was a...
Tomorrow, Today, Yesterday (08/13/08 - 9 Comments)
Last Saturday Aileen and I watched as some friends of ours were married. First was a beautiful ceremony at a historic Baptist church in the heart of the city and this was followed by a lengthy, enjoyable reception at a nearby reception hall. We enjoyed ourselves a lot and rejoice with our friends, praying for God’s blessing on their new marriage. As I was sitting in the church and as I sat at the reception,...
Got To Get To (07/25/08 - 25 Comments)
My children have been behaving a little bit strangely at bedtime in recent days. My son tends to be melancholy in the evenings at the best of times but recently has been getting worried as soon as we tuck him into bed. Two nights ago he was concerned that the Sith were going to attack him (how he even knows who the Sith are is beyond me) and last night he was worried that the...
A Family Prayer (05/11/08 - 6 Comments)
I went looking this morning for a prayer for Mother's Day. I guess the Puritans didn't celebrate Mother's Day (wasn't Hallmark around back then?) but I did find this prayer for the family in The Valley of Vision. It is called simply "Family." O SOVEREIGN LORD, Thou art the Creator-Father of all men, for thou hast made and dost support them; Thou art the special Father of those who know, love and honour thee, who...
Friday Miscellania (04/11/08 - 42 Comments)
It has been a tough couple of days. On Wednesday I wrote about the perfect storm of being away from home and returning only to have Michaela (my two year-old daughter) come down with some kind of illness. Well, that illness has progressed and yesterday she was admitted to the hospital. The doctors aren’t quite sure what is wrong with her, though at least they’ve been able to eliminate several awful things. At this point...
Family Worship for the Christmas Season (12/02/07 - 5 Comments)
I was raised as part of a Christian tradition that did not place a lot of emphasis on the religious component of the Christmas season. Christmas was a time for family and for friends and for being grateful for all the blessings given us by God, but did not include a lot of distinctly Christian traditions. It is with some interest, then, that I read of advent and the traditions of other people around the...
Tears at Thanksgiving (11/28/07 - 35 Comments)
My mother maintains a blog—a private blog that she uses to keep the family up-to-date with the latest family news. Because her five children (and four children-in-law and seven grandchildren) are scattered from Ontario to New York, from Georgia to Tennessee, she makes her blog a central repository for news and information we need to know. Yesterday, based on conversations she had around Thanksgiving, she posted some thoughts on divorce and its awful ramifications on...