Sometimes we cry over personal pain or frustration. Sometimes over relational distress. Sometimes over an unexpectedly hard day. Sometimes my tears are understandable and justified.  Sometimes I’ve cried selfish tears, or over dumb stuff. But there is some of my crying that my kids have seen that (I’m convinced) does good for their souls… It rises up… […]

Want the truth about being “Mommy?” Motherhood is a LOT… a lot of snuggles a lot of example-setting a lot of comforting hurts a lot of analyzing problems a lot of correcting a lot of smiles a lot of sorting-out priorities a lot of seeking wise counsel a lot of spankings a lot of back… […]

Unfortunately, this last week in particular, I and my children have seen incontrovertible evidence that (at least for me), stress and yelling seem to have a direct relationship. When stress increases, the volume and frequency of my yelling increases as well. So this weekend, I asked a group of godly women to exhort me in regard… […]

{NOTE: For those readers who don’t know our family, we’re the Connells. Doug’s my husband and I’m Jess. At the time of this trip, we had 7 kids (Ethan-14, Baxter-12, MeiMei-10, Silas-8, Moses-6, Theo-3.5, Luke-18 months), and I was 6 months pregnant with our 8th child. I’m publishing journal entries, pictures, & memories from our 12-day… […]

It can be difficult for parents in any season of life— with a newborn, with two or three little ones, with the time commitments of little league, with teens, or (as in our case) with a large family that bridges many of these “seasons”– to prioritize marriage amidst all the “busyness.” Here are 10 ways Doug and I purposefully work… […]

Confession time: I am tired of all the food wars. Tired, tired, tired. When I was growing up, everything was low-fat. Low-fat yogurt, 2% milk, low-fat cheese. Now, apparently, that makes you fat, no joke. This week, it’s “eat no carbs”, next thing I read says ‘trade off only carbs or fats as the fuel for… […]

I’ve never been a particularly disciplined person. People who know me well, saw my room when I was growing up, or who have ever seen the dishes stacked in my kitchen, are probably snickering right now. In fact, quite the opposite. I typically fly by the seat of my pants, procrastinate, and mostly do what I… […]

Hi there. If we haven’t met properly, I’m Jess. I’m not a mom with all the answers, but I’m not a mom with no answers either. I’ve been a mom for nearly 15 years, which is long enough to know some things by experience. And I’m a mom to 8 kids, which is enough kids… […]

Yay, it’s August! Nearly time for a new school year to begin!! We’re actually going into our tenth year of homeschooling… which is crazy! In January of 2007, we began curling up together, Ethan and I, with Sonlight books. We discovered the world together through books like Twenty and Ten (WWII– Nazis, rations, resistance), Understood Betsy (farm life, lifelong learning), A Grain of… […]

As Christian women, the topic of modesty can be a conversation fraught with traps. What does”modesty” even mean? Do we all have to dress according to some standard of not drawing the gaze of the biggest creep in the room? Or be like the most school-marm-y woman in the congregation? Is it a matter of inches on our… […]