I have been a volunteer my entire life. As long as I can remember, I was cleaning parks, painting over graffiti, teaching children… When I had my own children, I knew we would do volunteer work together. The kids helped the March of Dimes, and we all worked for the food bank. Many volunteer opportunities…
These days, it seems like every day is the same, but there are those rare quiet moments when everyone is content, and I relish being with each of my children. And I realize it won’t always be like this. Someday I’ll miss inside out dirty socks strewn throughout the house. I’ll miss getting Legos embedded…
I was in my five year old’s transitional kindergarten class when the teacher told me we were going to have a lockdown drill. This class had never had one before. The fifth graders in the room said that’s their favorite drill. One said he would go after the guy. I know my older children have…
I distinctly remember my dad saying there is something about turning nine. I was about to turn nine years old, I imagine. He said nine comes with great responsibility and more privilege. Do you ever feel like you tell your kid the same thing a million times? When it comes to improving the kids’ behavior,…
I don’t know why, but when I snuggle in at night, I often think of Grandma. She has always been a source of comfort. There was nothing Grandpa couldn’t fix, or Grandma couldn’t make. Nothing could go wrong. I could sit at Grandma’s bar and watch her work her magic in the kitchen. Who doesn’t…
Why are they growing up all of the sudden?! My oldest has been ready for a bigger bike, and got money for his birthday to go toward one. My youngest’s balance bike broke to the point of no repair. So, for a while we couldn’t take them all out to ride bikes. Three kids; two…
A New Year’s Day tradition at our church, is a morning of flag football. My hubby played football in high school, so he’s always up for a game. Two years ago, he took our oldest son with him, and they had a blast! The six year old even sacked the senior pastor! This year, Daddy…
Recently, while planning a trip to Pasadena, I realized we would be there during the time of float-preparation for the Rose Parade. How cool would it be to see some of that?! I remembered that my elementary school teacher/principal (also a Vacation Bible School teacher to our kiddos) was involved in float-decorating. Having never been…
I notice at the end of every year, people hope for the best from the coming year, and also complain about the ending year being their worst ever. After a few years of this, it is clear no year will ever be good enough for those people. Why can’t we acknowledge every year will have…
I was reading my old blog I started around this time eight years ago, with descriptions of what my oldest was like as a baby. There are so many similarities to how he is now. It has me thinking about who my children are, and the adults they may become. They have so many individual…