Parenting
Adventure posts on parenting feral farm kids and their shenanigans, who love our life, Jesus, and have an amazing work ethic. Posts on giving their mother anxiety attacks and loving every minute of it.
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We Don’t Do Sleepovers
In our family, we don’t do sleepovers with just anyone. It’s not you—it’s us. I have trust issues when it comes to others being responsible for my precious babies. The invitation to stay the night is appreciated, but if I don’t know you, I don’t trust you. Trust takes time—especially when it involves my children. I’ve seen too much in my career, read too many heartbreaking stories, and watched too many crime shows to casually say, “Sure, you can have my child overnight while she’s sleeping and at her most vulnerable.” No way. Even if your intentions are pure and the situation is completely innocent, I still have the responsibility,…
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The Blessing of Age-Gap Kids
The Blessing of Being an Age-Gap Sister There’s something really special about age-gap siblings. The oldest often takes a lead role in the lives of the younger ones, and it’s such a cool thing to watch—and to live. I’m an age-gap kid myself. I’m one of four girls (God bless my parents!). I’m the third, with two older sisters who are ten and twelve years older than me, and a younger sister who’s just seventeen months younger. When my older sisters were teenagers in high school, I got to tag along on dates (I’m sure they hated it, but they never let it show). I rode to school with them…
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We Threw A Party!
This year, both of my parents turned seventy-five. That’s a huge milestone—I mean, these people are old! My sweet mama had the idea to throw a surprise birthday party for my dad. After some consideration, my three sisters and I decided it would be a joint party—their birthdays are only four months apart. So, the game was on. We told my dad it was my nephew’s engagement party and led Mom to believe it was just for him. Meanwhile, my sisters and I got to work ironing out the details, each of us using our unique talents—one handled shopping and organization, another decorated the cake, the third brought her craftiness,…
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Community
Recently, my sisters and I threw a surprise birthday party for our parents. While reflecting on that day, what really struck me was the powerful sense of community. The room was filled with people my parents would want there the most—their family, siblings, close friends, and even their neighbor, who also happens to be my dad’s best friend since high school. There are people in your life who have just always been there, and for our family, that’s their neighbor. He’s an amazing man who has loved me like one of his own. He’s walked with my parents through it all—losses, surgeries, weddings, births, and every high and low in…
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Teens and Tech
Raising Kids in the Digital Age We live in a time of information. Everything we could ever imagine—and beyond—is right at our fingertips. All we have to do is Google what we want to know and boom, we have answers. But it’s also a time when a simple Google search can take us down a dark and heartbreaking road. That’s one of the reasons we’ve chosen to hold off on giving our younger children phones. The Risks Are Real I’ve seen it too many times—parents giving their child a phone with the best of intentions, only for things to go south quickly. Social media can be a great way to…
