Q FROM A READER: How do you feed your large family? The older my son gets, the more he’s eating, and I’m realizing I need to get better at cooking more food for less money. Yup, with 9 kiddos (8 of whom are sons!!), you know I understand! This is an ongoing point of analysis…

So, I just had our 8th baby. Which means… I don’t know everything, but I know some stuff.  There was this time, 14 or so years ago, when my first baby was just two months old, that I went to a birthday/blessing party for a young lady in our church. Right when it was time for each of […]

For many years of my life, I was a slave to potty training with the little kiddy chairs. We’d tote them around the house, dutifully emptying out the little chamber underneath the plastic seat multiple times a day, even for the tiniest drops of pee (for which we’d clapped and cheered, like the good potty-training […]

The experts recommend “tummy time,” but babies don’t seem to enjoy it. Here are some ways moms can help their babies push through the difficulty and develop those important neck and tummy muscles and head toward crawling.

Rising up this morning, I turned to Facebook videos before God’s Word. Mistake. Now the fears swirl: What is America’s fate? Economic decline? ISIS infiltration? Wicked leadership? Secularization and moral debasing beyond what already is the case? Same-sex marriage, LORD? Spitting in the face of the beautiful God-designed picture of marriage of Christ and the Church?…

Today I went in to the kitchen and immediately had to stifle a groan. I knew the minute I took a step, the bottom of my feet would be covered in crumbs. My heart felt tired, like “didn’t I JUST clean this up?” “Isn’t this, basically, the exact same mess I’ve cleaned up dozens, hundreds of times before?!”…

“The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days; while she who lets their habits take care of themselves has a weary life of endless friction with the children.”   ~Charlotte Mason Dear Mom of young children, Do you realize the incredible power you have… […]

When it comes to having another baby, people will talk about the potential for additional financial costs, marital strain, or having to go through labor again. But very few people talk about this. This was something I noticed about having another baby, 5 weeks after having our 8th baby– Here are our current set of “bookends” (oldest– Ethan– and youngest– […]

You may already know what I’m referring to. It’s the job where nearly everyone– celebrities, politicians, nurses, and stay-home-moms– struggles, almost from the first few minutes. In this place, we feel self-doubt we feel pressured to do it all we are ill-equipped in what we do we have no idea how to do it we’re pretty… […]

Q: I would love to know some things that have helped you how to simplify homeschooling in order to do things WELL. Everyday life with a large family (I have 5 kids under 10) in itself makes just the basics challenging some days!!! I would love to know some ways to maintain a certain level despite all seasons […]

Well, if you know anything about our family, you know we have a lot of kids (6, going on 7, to be exact). Spills have become part-and-parcel of Connell family mealtimes. And now, 12 years into this parenting gig, I’m nearly… getting better about… almost… past freaking out about spills at the table. One thing…

Moms, on today– Mother’s Day– let’s purpose to be thankful for whatever we are given, however small. Frankly, any holiday can set us up to have unrealistic expectations. Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries… younger women are now even told to expect a “push present” for having birthed a baby. Again and again, we women are primed by our culture […]

  This week, a friend admired my DIY chicken coop and said, “Wow, you really ARE Supermom, aren’t you?” She meant it kindly and this post really isn’t about that. But that situation got me thinking: I’m not Supermom. I’m a semi-normal (is anyone really normal?) person with 24 hrs in a day. I get grumpy…

Rising up this morning, I turned to Facebook videos before God’s Word. Mistake. Now the fears swirl: What is America’s fate? Economic decline? ISIS infiltration? Wicked leadership? Secularization and moral debasing beyond what already is the case? Same-sex marriage, LORD? Spitting in the face of the beautiful God-designed picture of marriage of Christ and the Church? […]