Blogging can be a little too much like having an imaginary friend.
Picture sitting at the smallest table at your coffee shop. (I’m having a seasonal special with half of the pumps, decaf. …Because as someone told me, with natural enthusiasm like mine, I should remain uncaffeinated. You?)
This morning I schlepped over to the home a friend of mine. A stay-at-home mom of three preschoolers, she feels limited in what she can offer the community. But my hat goes off to her: She invited an adult day program to her home to sing carols, read the Christmas story from the Bible, and a enjoy pretty great spread of snacks.
Somewhere in the middle of the singing, I remembered that besides just wanting to love on the participants or go through the happy holiday motions, I wanted the carols to sink into my heart, too.
But I also know that somewhere, a part of me resists this.
Missed the first list? Grab it here.Note: You are not the cruise director/court jester/general fun planner for your home. There are great benefits to kids being bored– and there are even dangers to our kids having the expectation they will always be entertained.
My kids will have some extra chores over break (trust me; there will be extra mess), and it’s really important to me that they not think their world is about them.
But sometimes it’s great to have a few ideas up your sleeve to create memories, get creative, serve others (the first list has printable thank you notes, too!), and have meaningful quality time together, soaking up childhood.
I love that we still celebrate a day of gratitude–and I never want to skip over it and scurry on to Christmas. I’m grateful for you, readers, as you pursue healthy, real relationships with God and the people around you. Enjoy celebrating with your family–and perhaps these can help. If you like them, feel free to share.
Many thanks to FreePrettyThingsForYou.com for the free watercolor clip art!
Happy Thanksgiving!
My husband and I sat at the empty dining-room table (um. Empty except for all the stuff my kids didn’t pick up), discussing Thanksgiving plans over a cobbled-together lunch. Him: leftover Mexican. Me: a bunch of stuff dumped in a bowl with tortilla chips. We were talking about what he hoped would happen; he turned to me.
“What about you?”
Well. There it was. I knew it would sound a little martyrish. But, hey. I’m a mother of four kids off school. I’m inviting relatives. My work-from-home schedule had already been put through the blender with the lid off. (I mean, that’s having kids in general, right? Like my “birth plan”. Please write down what you hope will happen so that, if the other 246 factors align themselves, we can help you have the birth you want.)
A late addition to this post: There’s another step you can take to stand with refugees. Consider signing the UN’s #withrefugees petition here!
I want to introduce you to my friend Pawad. Pawad is South Sudanese, and he’s from the Dinka tribe. Physically, this means that when Pawad gives me a hug, the top of my head aligns with his armpits. It means that when he smiles with those white-white teeth against his 80% cacao skin, it’s as if someone flipped on a couple hundred watts of electricity. He’s built like a piece of black licorice, limbs long and loose.
Pawad is fully scholarshipped to African Renewal University in Uganda, after which he hopes to become a pastor to his people, many of whom have been traumatized by 35 years of war. Coincidentally, Pawad is also a refugee.
The horrific news from Florida has all of us reeling. It’s leaving far more questions than answers in its wake. And it’s possible your kids are contending with some of the same questions we as parents are: “Is my school safe?” (If it helps, Keys for Kids just posted this devotional story to read with your kids.)
A few thoughts as you consider what to say to them.
This is one of those posts where I’ve still got so many issues that I wonder if I should be writing it in the first place (possibly passing on my corrupted thoughts to all of you?). Body image and I have a long and gnarly history. (See the first post of this series, A Body Good: Naked Truth about Body Image…and this one.) I still wrestle with it in real-time, so consider this a post of someone thinking out loud.
In my recent conversations with Western women, I’m getting the idea that I’m sadly far from alone. Body image certainly influences our confidence. The way we spend our time. Our sexuality and marriages.
He must have been two, I think, when it happened: back when his cheeks still looked like he was storing up nuts for winter. The store’s fluorescent lights buzzed above, and it must have been the time of year that the air conditioning was running full-blast there in the South. I was pregnant with our third, and making one of those fly-bys mothers of young children perform in a store when they have to look at a rack before one of her kids starts crying, whining, distracting, throwing things out of the cart or into the cart–you get the idea. The store wasn’t busy. Which must have been the reason I lifted him out to explore for a moment.
But in just that span of time, he was also…gone.
![Now You're Speaking My [Love] Language](https://www.janelbreitenstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/love-languages-text-1.jpg "Now You're Speaking My [Love] Language")
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