THE AWKWARD MOM

because uncomfortable conversations are the ones worth having

Tag: Sabbath

Fences, Sex, & Not-so-bad Boundaries

September 30, 2022 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 3 minutes

invisible fences good boundaries

One of my favorite recent additions to our house: An invisible fence to keep our adorable, occasionally obnoxious puppy from

  • running after our local deer infestation.
  • pursuing other dogs and unsuspecting passersby.
  • getting another person’s dog knocked up in the future.
  • being flattened by a vehicle.
  • annoying or alarming the new guests at the VRBO next door. To be clear, he’s ten pounds, so not a huge threat, literally or metaphorically.
  • indulging his insatiable curiosity and appetite for exploration to the point he can’t find his way back.

In short, our fence protects charming, tuna-and-gym-socks-loving little Charlie from himself. read more

This is Your Soul on Rest: Memos to Myself

February 22, 2020 / / 2 Comments
Reading Time: 7 minutes

rest

This week, my family and I shoved in the car ski boots and a sled and carefully calculated food to feed a family with three teenagers. In the 2-hour drive through the mountains, cell service dropped abruptly about twenty minutes in. Our friend’s cabin, swaddled in 3 feet of snow, has no internet (brilliant!), no reception, and is primarily heated with a potbelly stove.

The plan originally seemed dicey. My friend with cancer is declining. And after this trip, my husband leaves for two and a half weeks. read more

Do I let my kid veg out all summer?

June 20, 2019 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 6 minutes

summerBack in high school, I took a crazy-cool trip with an organization, performing evangelistic street theater as we camped through Europe. It was unforgettable.

But I’m sure it was no easy feat. Our team consisted of 90 teenagers (not a typo). Tents were lined up with military precision, and meals were planned down to the number of boxes of macaroni and the packets of oatmeal.

In a similar spirit, free time wasn’t called free time, but “O Time”: Organized time. As in, be intentional. Don’t fritter it away. read more

Best Posts of 2018!

December 27, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 4 minutes

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?) read more

INFOGRAPHIC: Ideas to Take Back Your Sabbath

September 25, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.

Mindset of the man too busy: I am too busy being God to become like God.

Mark Buchanan, The Holy Wild: Trusting in the Character of God read more

INFOGRAPHIC: Simplify Your Schedule (in Time for the School Year!)

July 24, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Sometimes it can feel a little like my schedule has me on a leash, rather than the other way around. During the school year, when asked how we are, how many times could we answer, “Busy”?

But, as I like to be reminded by Peter Scazzero, we’re human beings, not human doings. We are more than what we do, more than our usefulness, like some machine or hired hand.

Deep(ly) Fried, Part II: Processing Burnout (…and am I Playing the Martyr?)

September 22, 2016 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 3 minutes

deeply-fried

Missed Part I? First, grab it here.

When you felt like you were finally surfacing from burnout–or as I called it, tired-mad, I might tell you what I found out. That sometimes burnout is simply burnout, because life is hard. And even though God never gives us more than He’ll give us strength to handle (He says so here and here), it still can feel like a rightful scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel, ta-da-I-survived type thing. (Whether it’s godly or not to be burned out is another post for another time, perhaps. But pretending it’s not there doesn’t really help.) read more

Deep(ly) Fried, Part I: Burnout

September 20, 2016 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 4 minutes

I glimpsed it in the slight tightness, the fatigued determination of her face that day: that distinct weariness that comes from herding toddlers and preschoolers 24/7. Having worn that particular look for approximately eight years myself, I know it well.

And though there are few exhaustions like young-mom exhaustion—I felt my own version of tired-mad that week. (Um. My family may have felt it, too.) One of my favorite takeaways from the movie Home were those hybrid-emotions, like sad-mad. Anger is a secondary emotion anyway, right? We feel angry usually because we were first hurt; afraid; grieved. Depleted, taken for granted; so very tired. So I have to plunge my fingers into my anger, exploring a bit.

In praise of Sabbath: On letting go

July 26, 2016 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 4 minutes

And…we’re gone.

By the time you read this, my family will likely have wrangled our carry-ons into that taupe-colored hum of a 757, bound for six months stateside. (After the lunacy of this week, preparing to abscond for six entire months, I surely hope we make it to the plane.)

I feel conflicted over this.

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