Family Photo

Just a good old fashion Family Photo

Christmas Goodness

What an incredible day!

St. Petersburg Snow

My sister is teaching at a university in St. Petersburg, Russia. Not a very hospitable environment during the winter. It get’s cold! However, along with the cold comes the snow and I am a snowaholic. I LOVE THE SNOW! So when I see week long forecasts that have nothing but snow I get a little jealous…

If only it would snow here…

Skyped

Well I just got done Skyping my sister in St. Petersburg, Russia. She’s been over there for several months now teaching English. While I’ve Skyped her from my phone before, this was the first time via my computer. Pretty good time, although my mic doesn’t work so she talked to me and I typed to her.

As she’s on this journey she’s blogging about all of her happenings so I thought I’d provide a little link love.

Check out her blog!

Helping Your Child With Media Discernment

There is no doubt about it, we live in a multimedia society and often times it can be a challenge to determine what is acceptable to take in; this is especially true for kids.

Take a look at the Focus on the Family article linked below and use the questions presented to help your kids process what media they consume, and what God thinks about it.

CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE: “Talking to kids about media discernment”

What is the most challenging part of “media discernment?”

Family Summer Fun

I remember growing up and loving summer but often feeling bored. For whatever reason, it didn’t matter how many toys I had, I often found myself looking for things to do.

I found this article earlier today with a big list of things families can do together during the summer to help fend off summer boredom.

Check it out.

What fun family plans does your family have?

My Fam

I have a great family. The are loving, thoughtful, funny and so unique.

I just spent the evening with my family celebrating Mother’s day and it was a great time. We talked, laughed and ate some great pizza.

It’s nice to have a family that you can just hang with and not feel uncomfortable or awkward. That’s definitely something I value.

Today I am especially thankful for a wonderful mom who is so loving. 

Happy Mother’s Day Mom! 

Legacy

We all are in the business of creating legacies. Whether we want to or not, the decisions we make, the things we choose, the paths we wander down essentially create what is our “legacy.”

But how often do we consider what legacy we are going to leave for our children? I’m not talking about inheritances, but rather, what mindsets, values, perspective, insights, and skills are we leaving with the next generation.

This whole questions was brought to mind by a Focus on the Family article and now I’m left wondering what legacy I want to leave with my kids someday.

What Legacy are you leaving with yours?

Making Peace

I just had a conversation with a colleague about spanking kids. It’s really an interesting subject and one that people have all kinds of opinions on, but it got me thinking on a broader level about what families can do to create environments that teach kids how to make not only wise choices, but also resolve conflict when it arises.

It’s easy for a kid to get it in their mind that hitting, or name calling is acceptable when they experience it on television or even at school amongst their friends. It’s also easy for kids to think that blaming someone else is a great way to divert punishment or other sorts of consequences, such as spanking or a timeout, etc.

Focus on the Family has an article on their site about how to “teach children to be peacemakers.” This is such an incredibly important principle that if kids can grasp it, it will have wonderful effects on all of their relationships. Relationship at home, at school, on the playground and in their future relationships as they get older.

Read the article, and leave a comment on what you do to make sure your kids are becoming peacemakers.

Why Does It Always Have To Be In His Time?

I went to visit my grandma today. She’s in a nursing home with some sort of respratory condition and the doctors don’t believe she has a great deal of time left. However she’s awfully strong and some days it seems as though she has a good deal of time left here on earth.

This creates a difficult situation because she is unable to take care of herself, yet she may very well have several years of life left. No one really seems to know.

When I saw her today she was voicing her frustration with being in the nursing home and how she can’t see herself walking the halls of that place for “ten more years.” It was such a distressing thought that she began to cry. My dad pointed out that if it’s not her time to go there must still be something for her to do here on earth and that might very well be to love on some of the residents of the nursing home who are worse off than she is.

She agreed, but half jokingly said, “why does it always have to be in His time?” It’s a good question. Ultimately we know that it has to be in His time because he is the creator of the universe. But at the same time, why can’t she go home now? She’s ready to. She said so today.

I hope that I get to go home before I reach that stage of life. I can’t imagine being in a place that smells of decay. A place where people sit with glazed eyes, waiting for the the day when they get to go home.

I pray that as my grandma Miles spends her time in this facility you will fill her her heart with joy and her days with meaning.